Clayhill is located in Flitwick near Bedfordshire and was the UK’s first solar farm developed free from government subsidy. It consists of 10MW of solar PV co-located with a 6MW energy storage facility and generates enough electricity for around 2,500 homes while saving around 4,500 tonnes of carbon annually.
Anesco will continue to provide operations and maintenance services for the site, as part of a 20-year agreement with Gridserve.
“Engineering a subsidy-free development at Clayhill was a landmark achievement for the industry and is something we’re very proud of” said Mark Futyan, Anesco CEO. “It has proven to be a solid investment and we look forward to working with Gridserve to ensure Clayhill continues to generate the optimal financial and environmental returns. Moving from being an asset owner to a services provider was always our intention and the sale of Clayhill forms a significant part of that. This transaction will fuel growth by enabling us to bring new projects into being and to expand our operations and maintenance, asset optimisation and ECO divisions. Overall, creating a truly integrated proposition for renewable energy investors”.
Gridserve’s plans for the site include sleeving some of the power generated by Clayhill for its Electric Forecourt in Braintree, which is due to open to the public later this year. The Electric Forecourt forms part of the company’s ‘Sun-to-Wheel’ model - delivering net zero carbon electric vehicle charging, powered by clean energy generated from solar power. It marks the first in a planned roll-out of over 100 Electric Forecourts and electric vehicle charging solutions by the company across the UK in the coming years.
Anesco has developed 115 utility-scale solar and energy storage projects to date, with a total capacity in excess of 750MW. To support the advancement of the UK’s subsidy-free markets, Anesco invested directly in a number of projects but is now selling these assets to focus fully on its core offering: providing full lifecycle engineering services to solar and energy storage markets.
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