London-based energy investment platform NextEnergy Capital has secured US$974 million towards its NextPower V solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) investment vehicle.
The sum includes investments in NextPower V and “sizeable commitments for co-investments in the NextPower V strategy”, NextEnergy said. Investors in the fund include UK and European pension funds and international financial institutions, which NextEnergy said gives them “access and capture the attractive growth landscape for solar PV and BESS.”
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The NextPower V fund is NextEnergy Capital’s fifth dedicated solar and energy storage investment vehicle. It has deployed roughly 85% of its capital in eight transactions, totalling 550MW of nameplate capacity across 127 assets. 83% of the portfolio is operational, 13% is under construction, and 4% is at the ready-to-build phase, the company said. The fund focuses on OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.
The fund’s first acquisition was a 100MW solar PV project it bought in Florida in December 2023; its most recent was a 73MW agrivoltaics project in Campania, Italy. NextEnergy Capital said it intends to grow NextPower V towards a circa-1GW project portfolio.
Investment appetites for renewables are strong in light of the global imperative to reduce carbon emissions and transition energy production away from fossil fuels by 2050. NextEnergy Capital said it focused on solar PV “as the proven and stable technology” in that transition.
“This successful final close reflects both the resilience of the strategy and the continued demand for high-quality, contracted renewable infrastructure assets, allowing the international investment team to continue to scale infrastructure asset classes in OECD markets through our highly selective curated 18GW pipeline,” said Antonio Salvati, managing director of NextPower V at NextEnergy Capital.
“Achieving this outcome in a more challenging fundraising environment is a strong endorsement of NEC’s specialist solar and BESS investment platform and our long-standing investor relationships,” said Ross Grief, chief investment officer at NextEnergy Capital.
Earlier this year, NextEnergy Capital’s UK-focused solar fund, NextEnergy Solar, announced a plan to shift its strategy away from standalone solar and towards energy storage assets in the UK. The fund said it planned to divest some of its solar assets and reallocate funds to energy storage after its Net Asset Value (NAV) was consistently low and its share value discounted.
