Aura Power has reached financial close on the 30MW Rayleigh solar project in Essex. The project is now ready to start construction.
Senior debt financing for the Rayleigh solar project was provided by Dutch multinational financier Rabobank, which has worked with Aura on three other UK solar projects in Gloucestershire, County Durham And Lincolnshire. Aura has not disclosed the size of the financing by Rabobank.
The Bristol-based developer said Rayleigh represents a “major milestone” in its UK solar portfolio. With this financial close, the project brings Aura Power’s UK portfolio to 242 MWp of solar projects under construction.
Preparatory work on site will start in November, starting with the construction of a new access road from the A127. Full works will then start in February 2026, led by the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, ib vogt. Aura said the project is calculated to deliver a net biodiversity gain of more than 130%, above the legal threshold for UK developments.
Ali Timms, general counsel at Aura Power, said the Rayleigh project “marks another important step in the delivery of our turnkey solar portfolio of almost 600 MWp in Britain.”
The project was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) in September 2024 in the sixth auction round (AR6) of the Department for Net Zero and Energy Security (DESNZ) CfD program. AR6 was assigned highest budget ever for a renewable energy funding round, which reached £1.5 billion, and closed with awards for 93 ground-based solar projects with a combined capacity of 3.3 GW.
Globally, Aura Power has a solar project pipeline of approximately 3.2 GWp and an active battery storage pipeline of approximately 9.5 GW in six countries.
