UK's NextEnergy Capital raises nearly $900 million for solar infrastructure fund

British investment manager NextEnergy Capital (NEC) said on Monday it has raised nearly US $900 million for its NextPower III ESG solar fund, the biggest such private fund in the sector till date.

NEC launched the subsidy-free solar investment fund last year in the UK, focused on solar infrastructure investments in OECD countries and priming it to target investment in c.1GW of generation from around 30 solar farms across the UK.

The hard close of the fund at US $896 million, far above its target of US $750 million, comes as the cost of solar energy continues to fall during a critical phase in the energy transition. Investors in the fund include pension schemes, insurance companies, family offices and others from nine countries, and together with finance committed outside of the fund corpus itself, investible capital available to NEC stood at US $905 million, the company said.

“There was an enormous amount of investor interest," Michael Bonte-Friedheim, group CEO and founding partner of NEC, said in a statement. 

“I am looking forward to the continued development of the fund’s portfolio given the depth and quality of its current pipeline,” he added.

According to NextEnergy, the fund had already made its first investments, with an installed capacity of 742 megawatts across 23 projects and two portfolios. It would continue to invest in projects in the United States, Portugal, Spain, Chile, and Poland, the company said.