Drax Group has completed a £548m acquisition of Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF), adding solar and wind assets to its portfolio for the first time.
The acquisition includes 0.9GW of operating and under-construction solar and wind assets, alongside a gross development pipeline of 2.9GW.
Natural Power acted as technical advisor to BSIF throughout the transaction, providing technical due diligence and the delivery of pre-construction and post-construction yield assessments across the portfolio.
The consultancy’s advisory and analytics team covered 1.2GW of operational solar and wind projects and a further 1.3GW of solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in development.
To manage the scale of the assessment, Natural Power completed a portfolio-level post-construction yield assessment covering all 132 projects within the operational portfolio, alongside detailed assessments for a sample of 20 operational solar farms.
Aaron Dickinson, senior energy analyst at Natural Power, said: “This was a significant and complex transaction, not least because of the scale and diversity of the portfolio. Our team was able to provide BSIF with technical due diligence and yield assessments across both the operational and development portfolios, covering all wind, solar and BESS technologies.
“Taking a portfolio-level approach allowed us to assess a substantial volume of projects efficiently, while providing the technical insight required to support the transaction. We were delighted to work with BSIF on this major deal and to bring together the breadth of expertise from across our advisory and analytics team.”
Drax has described the acquisition as transformational for its business, with the addition of solar and wind strengthening its renewable generation platform as UK electricity demand continues to grow.
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