Christopher Aird

Project financing co-located renewable assets

Targets for domestic power decarbonisation have recently been accelerated by the UK government, including the goal to quintuple the instalment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) by 2030. (BESS store electrical energy in batteries for later use and can therefore manage the intermittency of renewable energy). Consequently, it is expected that the co-location of larger-scale renewable generation projects with BESS assets (where the BESS is installed alongside another power generation source) will be an important feature of the UK’s energy transition. Norton Rose Fulbright recently advised Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners on the innovative project financing of the Cleve Hill Solar Park,¹ a 373 MW solar PV + 150 MW BESS project in Kent (Cleve Hill). Cleve Hill is both the only solar Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project under construction in the UK, and the project with the largest corporate Power Purchase Agreement for solar offtake in the UK. Cleve Hill serves as a useful case study in crafting a bankable legal framework for the project financing of utility-scale co-located projects.