UK-based solar investment company launches the first subsidy-free solar park

• LSE-listed investment company NextEnergy Solar Fund has finished the construction of the first unsubsidized solar project in Great Britain.

NextEnergy confirms Hall Farm II, which was the investor’s first unsubsidized venture, has been connected to the grid. 

As the investment company states, this project has allowed it becoming the industry leader ‘in this space’. NESF has already begun development of the next subsidy-free facility, this time with 50MW capacity. The plant will be installed at the border of two counties: Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. The construction is expected to finish by the end of the current fiscal year. 

According to the fund’s words, such results prove the economic case of unsubsidized solar photovoltaics in Britain over other power generation technologies, the majority of which are still unimaginable without expensive and extensive subsidies. 

The new facility has been created adjoining the existing solar park. So, the oversized planning and the available power grid infrastructure have proven beneficial for the project budget. 

Total generation capacity of the solar fund’s pipeline is about 705 megawatts. The first time the company announced its ambitions for UK solar power without subsidy support was last June, which was followed by its subsidy-free generation capacity forecast reaching about 470 megawatts by the end of the year. 

According to the company’s half-year report, the power generation exceeded the expected capacity by about 5%, which was possible due to irradiation exceeding the prediction.