Solarcentury doubles down on utility-scale pipeline as residential solar arm sold

UK-headquartered solar developer Solarcentury has sold its residential solar arm to Svea Solar, allowing the firm to refocus its efforts entirely on utility-scale developments.

The deal, which has been agreed for an undisclosed sum, will see Sweden’s Svea Solar take on Solarcentury’s residential solar interests in Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, effective tomorrow (1 April 2020).

The agreement will see 40 of Solarcentury’s employees working on its residential unit transfer to Svea.

Also included in the deal is ownership of Solarcentury’s partnership with IKEA, which has seen the company exhibit and sell domestic solar and storage technologies in the furniture giant’s stores throughout Europe.

The residential arm contributed less than 10% of Solarcentury’s global revenues in its previous financial year, the company disclosed.

Solarcentury meanwhile will expand its utility-scale solar development arm which is currently seeking to develop a 5GW pipeline of projects that spans Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Frans van den Heuvel, chief executive at Solarcentury, said that now was the “right time” to transfer ownership of the residential arm of the business given the “significant expansion” of its large-scale operations.

“With its sole focus on residential solar and its reputation in the industry for innovation and customer service, Svea Solar is the ideal guardian to take this business forward,” he said.

It is unclear, however, whether the sale of Solarcentury’s residential business is linked in any way to a wider sale of Solarcentury outright, first mooted by the company early last year. Solarcentury was first reported to be exploring a potential sale in April of last year, later confirmed by the company as it sought the resource to pursue a multi-GW, pan-global pipeline of PV projects.

Chief executive Van Den Heuvel told sister publication Solar Power Portal last June that the sale was necessary to help take Solarcentury to the “top tier” of solar development worldwide, however since then there has been no substantial update on the sale’s progress.

In a statement issued to PV Tech today, a spokesperson at Solarcentury said there was no further update on the sale process to make at this time, stressing the firm’s current focus to be on “delivering long-term growth and profitability through the conversion of its 5GWp global pipeline of solar development assets”.

Tags: solarcentury, svea solar, europe, sweden, netherlands, germany, ikea, residential solar, utility-scale solar, lsdigital