The Macquarie Group has financed a solar project in the UK, providing £21.5m (€29.1m) to asset manager Quercus Assets Selection.

The company’s Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS) arm provided the 19-year facility on the development, in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Quercus said it would use the loan to complete construction of the scheme, which includes 113,000 solar panels.

The £21.5m facility is split into index-linked and fixed-rate tranches.

MIDIS, which last year raised £979m for its UK inflation-linked debt strategy, said the scheme was one of the largest solar projects in the UK to date. 

Quercus has a 15-year power purchase arrangement with Norwegian utility Statkraft.

Kit Hamilton, MIDIS senior vice-president, said UK and European sponsors and developers of renewable energy projects increasingly needed “innovative solutions to address their financing requirements”.

Separately, a consortium of funds managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) is increasing its stake in a Czech natural gas supplier.

The funds will take a further 15% in RWE Grid Holding (RGH), taking their holdings to just under 50%. 

The consortium, which includes majority investor Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4 and another Macquarie-managed vehicle, expects to complete the deal next month.

RGH owns and operates around 80% of the Czech Republic’s gas distribution network.