Schroders Greencoat has acquired Stokeford Solar Farm in Dorset from Innova and its joint venture partner Will Bond, the landowner at Stokeford Farm.
The 28.5MWp solar farm, located near Wareham, was developed by an Innova-led joint venture and is part of a shared grid connection with the nearby Alaska Wind Farm – 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 by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The site energised at the end of July 2024 this year.
Hassan Bashir, senior investment manager at Innova, said: “We are delighted to announce the divestment of our fourth project from our DNO (district network operator) 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.”
Matt Tingle, investment director at Schroders Greencoat, said: “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 70GW 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).
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