Schroders Greencoat Acquires Stokeford Solar Farm

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 18, Schroders Greencoat, the specialist renewable investment manager, has acquired on behalf of its clients Stokeford solar farm, a 28.5 MW solar farm located near Wareham, Dorset, from Innova and its joint venture partner Will Bond, the landowner at Stokeford Farm. The acquisition was made by a UK flagship private markets fund managed by Schroders Greencoat.

Stokeford solar farm is a site that has been developed by the Innova-led JV, and is also part of a shared grid connection with Alaska Wind Farm (8.0 MW) – one of a few shared solar-wind grid connections at utility scale in England. In July 2022 the site was awarded a contract for difference (CfD) (AR4) by the Department for Business, Energy and, Industrial Strategy.

The site energised on 31 July 2024. The design, module procurement, EPC, and the ICP construction contracts – in addition to the unique technical and commercial complexities involved with a shared grid connection – were managed by Innova’s in-house delivery, engineering, development, and corporate finance teams.

Hassan Bashir, Senior Investment Manager at Innova, said: “We are delighted to announce the divestment of our fourth project from our DNO pipeline to a Schroders Greencoat-managed fund. The acquisition of the operational Stokeford solar farm marks a significant ramp-up in scale of new-build projects that Innova together with Schroders Greencoat are delivering, which contributes significantly towards our shared goal to deliver the UK’s net zero target.

“On behalf of Innova, I would like to thank our project partners and legal advisers at TLT LLP for their support through the sales process.”

Matt Tingle, Investment Director at Schroders Greencoat, added: “This acquisition is the latest in our partnership with Innova, which has now seen four projects transacted, as we work together towards our ambition of meeting the UK’s demand for clean affordable energy, and the Government’s target of 70 GW of solar capacity by 2035. Stokeford has the potential to provide investors with the long-term, inflation linked cashflows, which our fund is designed to deliver. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Innova as we build on our existing portfolio of installed UK solar capacity.”

This is the fourth transaction between Schroders Greencoat and Innova (all of which were from Innova’s development pipeline). The news follows previous acquisitions by ISG Renewables, a JV between the two firms, of Carn Nicholas (10 MW), Bicker Fen (22.6 MW, previously known as Manor Farm solar farm) and Newbold Pacey (27.8 MW, previously known as Elms solar farm).