Bristol-headquartered national law firm TLT has strengthened its position in the solar power sector by advising prominent market player NextEnergy on 10 acquisitions.
The deals – on ground-mounted solar projects stretching from Cornwall to Yorkshire – have a total value of £58.5m with the capacity to generate a massive 52.6MWp.
London-based NextEnergy Solar Fund is an active investor in the ground-mounted solar market and has ambitious plans to expand its portfolio across the UK and Europe.
TLT supported it across all workstreams, including corporate transactional, real estate, planning, grid, offtake and construction.
The firm has extensive experience in the private wire market – localised, standalone grids with privately owned central plant.
The TLT team was led by corporate partner Kay Hobbs, solicitor Adam Kean and chartered legal executive Nick Rains, with support from partners Maria Connolly and Matthew Grimwood, legal director Kerri Ashworth and solicitor Anthony Lindley in the real estate team.
They were joined by solicitor Andrew Russell in the construction team; partner Katherine Evans and legal directors Debbie Reynolds and Fergus Charlton in the planning team; and commercial legal director Stuart Urquhart.
NextEnergy Capital principal, UK, Ross Grier said: “We continue to have ambitious plans for the future and remain heavily in acquisition mode. The strength and depth of our team and the relationship we have with TLT has allowed us, and will continue to allow us, to close multiple transactions in short order. We value the assistance TLT provides us and the experience and specialist knowledge TLT has in the clean energy market.”
TLT partner Kay Hobbs said: “There still remains a hot bed of M&A [merger and acquisition] activity in respect of the operational solar market and competition for assets is high.
“The NextEnergy team has a wealth of experience in this sector and are able to move quickly and pragmatically, which is a huge plus for sellers. We are delighted to work with them to help deliver their growth plans.
“We are also seeing a continued increase in activity in respect of subsidy-free projects, with many clients securing project rights and development and funding partners. The solar sector remains resilient despite the recent change in subsidy support and TLT is proud to play a key sector role in further promoting the development of clean energy projects.”
