Savills has announced the investment opportunity for a 9.34 MW solar farm on behalf of the Tom Duke Life Interest Trust.
Located between London and Cambridge in Royston, Hertfordshire, the site was originally commissioned in September 2014.
The fully operational investment opportunity on private land covers approximately 41.95 hectares. The base rent for the 2023 calendar year was £71,199, and the net royalty rent was £76,174, making the total combined rent £147,117.
The lease was entered into in 2014 and runs until 2039, with an option to extend for five years. The tenant is an established renewable energy investor with a portfolio of similar projects in Great Britain.
Henry Grant, member of Savills Energy’s infrastructure and renewable energy team, said: “With Britain aiming for renewable energy to reach half of all energy consumed by 2030, there has been a strong increase in demand for land that is suitable to accommodate developments in the field of renewable energy. in the entire country.
“Wisbridge Solar Farm is a solid investment opportunity with strong fundamentals including a robust rental income stream and a reliable, experienced tenant. We expect a large number of applications from investors.”
Savill’s solar history
In 2018 it was announced that a shared project between Savills and Elgin Energy had been approved for construction on a former RAF airfield.
The 50MW solar farm was Scotland’s largest approved solar project at the time and was expected to be fully operational in the first half of the 2020s.
The development went into planning in August 2017 and is the first solar project to be approved by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU). The ECU decides on projects with an output of 50 MW or more.
Due to “the scale and complexity” of the project, the ECU has allowed a five-year deadline for the start of development.
Unlike the majority of subsidy-free solar farms participating in the development screening process, the planning and decision documents for Elgin’s project make no mention of energy storage, instead relying on the size of capacity to be commercially viable.
The company previously described the size of the project as “symptomatic of the changing support regime for these types of projects.”
Ronan Kilduff, Managing Director of Elgin Energy, said: “This large-scale project is the culmination of dedication and vision between Elgin Energy, Innes Estate, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution, National Grid, Savills and the rest of our professional support team. “
