Solar Farm for sale??

[Freezing]

Dear U.K. Business Forums Members,

I am looking to acquire a solar farm (I don’t mind where in the U.K./world it is) to diversify my energy holdings. I have tried to find some that are currently for sale but haven’t found any, would anyone happen to know of a solar farm-specific site that I may have overlooked, or broker I could approach to acquire one?

Thanks!

 

[WaveJumper]

This should be interesting as judging by conversations I have had with several owners once you have one it’s a licence to print money so good luck with your quest. It may be better (quicker) to try and find a site that could be developed. best of luck & and welcome to the UKBF

 

[Mark T Jones]

A quick Google search gave a lot of results

Contrary to popular belief, it is far from a licence to print money, plenty go bust!

 

[fisicx]

An old friend is a farmer and he looked into doing this on one of his fields. It only works if you own the land. If you have to pay rent then the profits evaporate.

 

[IanSuth]

An old friend is a farmer and he looked into doing this on one of his fields. It only works if you own the land. If you have to pay rent then the profits evaporate.

And if you are close to a substation with a decent connection capability as you have to pay silly £ per meter to lay armoured cable to the substation and upgrade it if it isnt capable. The electricity board may not give you the whole story. I was sat a few years ago on a field (motorbike rally) with the farmer and a bike mate who worked for SEC, farmer was bemoaning the quote he had been given, SEC employee whipped out his phone got his work map up and said "tell them you want to connect to that substation", SEC had not mentioned one they were "saving" space in for a new planned office park that could easily be accessed from his fields just an extra 20 meters and so he didn't need to pay to upgrade the substation which saved 6 figures and made the project viable

 

[NickGrogan]

Sounds about right, the distributors are keen to look after themselves.

There are solar farms for sale, the good ones with long term high price power purchase agreements in place are very expensive - there is no reason to sell them.

There are plenty that barely makes a profit and you might be able to pick one up for a reasonable price, but you'll be stuck with the current prices/profits. If the PPA is ending soon the price goes up.

There are also cheap solar farms available, these tend to be smaller, in the wrong location and not generating as much power as they should for the investment cost. They're cheap, but not profitable.

What is your budget?

 

[Socio South West]

I had an interesting discussion with a 'boilerman' who specialises in oil and gas last week.

My understanding is that both are being phased out, with new gas and oil appliances becoming unable to be installed in around 5 years time.

One of his suggestions to me was to look at a wood pellet system to replace the ageing oil fired boiler.

You might get more bang for your buck long term if you invested in some land or even woodland to get into biomass production.

My annoyingly learned daughter who specializes in renewables and sustainables maintains solar electricity is still very primitive and inefficient, and really gave me the Death Stare when I suggested solar panels for either heating or electricity as the result of this discussion.

 

[Freezing]

What is your budget?

£2-3 million

 

[NickGrogan]

Plenty of options in that range, but a lot of buying competition as well.

What experience do you have in this sector?

 

[The Byre]

£2-3 million

That is probably not enough. It's kind of on the edge and I would suggest gold or silver or uranium as an alternative investment right now.

Solar ONLY survives because there are subsidies - that means that your investment relies on a political whim - not a good position to be in when governments everywhere are dancing on the edge of a volcano of overwhelming debt.

About 10 years ago I did a study for a political party on alternative energy and solar was in its baby shoes. Right now, break-even is at about 25 acres (10 hectares) for a new-build and that diminishes with location. That gives you a ROI of zero - only the land value increase can give you a real profit. And those halcyon days of ever-increasing vales may soon be over!

Running costs are about 20% of revenue. Equipment costs are about £1m per acre. The equipment will last 25 years.

It's all down to the fine details of the calculation. When was it ever otherwise!

 

[Clinton]

... or broker I could approach to acquire one?

You could talk to Ran Carmon, MD of Chelsea Corporate or Mark Eardley MD at Langcliffe. Both are buy-side brokers and good friends of mine, you could mention my name. When you have very specific acquisition criteria, it makes sense to use professional deal sourcers / originators.

 

[Red Wood]

There are a number of large multi nationals that invest (build) solar farms (globally), these won't be smaller than 5mw generally. Even a small farm of this size costs millions to build and that's before you've even generated a watt of power.

These type of investments aren't started light heatedly. They are in it for the long haul and they don't break even for a very long time. This of course is costed in and only those companies with VERY deep pockets embark on such projects. They don't want to sell these assets.

My advice, if you desperately want to buy a site, and every night you dream of owning one... Building it 'yourself' is likely your only option.