Solar and battery storage investment company Foresight Solar Fund has confirmed it has achieved a record year for electricity production in 2023.
In the fund’s 2023 annual results, Foresight said its 58-project portfolio, which has a total capacity of 969 MW, exported 1,094 GWh of electricity to the grid.
As a result of this record generation, Foresight, which marked its tenth year of operation in 2023, also achieved a record high cash distribution from assets at £120.4m, up 8% year on year.
Foresight’s strong performance was attributed to the UK portfolio, which “saw good availability, allowing the assets to absorb slightly higher than expected solar radiation.” The result showed that the British portfolio generated 0.7% above budget.
It’s also worth noting that Foresight Solar Fund’s net asset value (NAV) rose to £697.9m in 2023. However, the company saw the valuation of its UK portfolio fall from £1.29 million/MW in 2022 to £1.17 million/MW in 2023.
Commenting on the results, Alexander Ohlsson, Chairman of Foresight Solar, said: “After a challenging year for markets, we believe there are reasons for optimism. The energy transition is one of the most important investment themes of our generation.
“The opportunities for solar energy alone are enormous. The sector’s fundamentals remain attractive and solar power generation remains one of the cheapest and most reliable sources of electricity available.
“These promising prospects, combined with Foresight Solar’s improved financial position and a clear strategy to generate revenue and growth, position the fund well to take advantage of future opportunities.”
Market overview: GB BESS market falters, while solar sees ‘steady growth’.
Within Foresight Solar’s annual results, the market context is described, with the company believing that in the longer term “the case for batteries remains positive”. This is despite the challenging market conditions the technology witnessed in late 2023 and early 2024.
According to Foresight Solar, the battery energy storage market has seen “lucrative but declining revenues from ancillary services that have not been fully replaced by merchant trading. This is a result of structural problems with the electricity grid balancing mechanism, but also of declines in wholesale electricity prices and a corresponding reduction in market volatility.”
This position echoes what other investors, such as the Gresham House Energy Storage Fund and Harmony Energy Income Trust, have previously stated this.
There has been ‘steady growth’ for utility-scale solar, with the company stating that an estimated 3GW of new capacity will be installed by 2023. The main reason for this is ‘lower component costs and successful allocations in the latest Contracts for Difference auction’, with solar generating almost 2GW.
Solar Power Portal’s publisher Solar Media will host the UK Solar Summit on June 4-5, 2024 in London. The event will explore Britain’s new utility and rooftop solar landscape, look at the opportunities within a GW+ annual market, and much more. For more information, visit the website.
