Wednesday 30 October 2019

Future looks sunny for UK’s largest community solar farm with finance deal

The future looks sunny for the UK’s largest community solar farm with the signing of a new long-term finance deal.

The 60,000-panel Heart of England Community Energy solar farm near Stratford-upon-Avon has secured new finance from Triodos Bank UK and Social and Sustainable Capital.

The site boasts 14.7MW of electricity capacity, enough to power around 4,500 homes, as well as 3MW of batteries operated by a third party, meaning that it can both generate clean energy and provide battery storage services to the grid.

The finance package of £16.3 million combines loans of around £12 million from Triodos Bank UK with further finance totalling around £4.3 million from Social and Sustainable Capital.

Philip Bazin, Environment Team Manager at Triodos Bank UK, said: "This transaction proves that community energy schemes can be delivered and financed at scale.

"Such schemes have multiple positive impacts, not only do they help the clean energy transition but their profits also benefit local people. By driving down the cost of finance, we have helped Heart of England solar to operate more profitably and increase its financial contribution to the community."