Anesco receives £12m renewables funding boost from Santander

Independent renewable energy company Anesco gets £12m revolving credit facility from Santander UK to support delivery of its renewables pipeline

Independent renewable energy company Anesco has received a £12mn revolving credit facility from Santander UK which will support delivery of its renewable energy developments in the UK and Europe.

Currently it has five battery storage projects and three solar farms at ready-to-build stage.

The battery storage projects, located in Dundee, Melksham, Nottingham, Ipswich and Essex, are due to become operational by spring 2023. The three solar farms, located in England and south Wales, are due to start operating later this year.

Headquartered in Reading and founded in 2010, Anesco also has its sights set on international expansion, initially in Germany and the Netherlands.

The company is targeting further growth – both organic and through acquisition – in these markets and more widely throughout Europe. Its secured pipeline of renewable energy projects is entering the build phase and the company anticipates this will bring triple-digit growth to its current annual revenue of £70mn over the next few years.

The business has increased its staff by 20% over the past nine months to now employ 200 in the UK. It anticipates growing this number by a further 20%-30% over the next two years with roles based across the UK, Netherlands and Germany.

Anesco specialises in solar power generation and energy storge and has constructed more than 100 solar farms and 30 energy storage facilities in the UK and Europe. In 2017, it constructed the UK’s first subsidy-free solar farm, Clayhill in Milton Keynes and in 2019, was first to enter a battery into the balancing mechanism market with National Grid.

In addition to developing, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining grid-scale renewable energy solutions, Anesco provides route to market services for asset owners optimising battery storage assets across various markets. It is also among the UK’s largest providers of energy efficiency services under the Government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, helping energy suppliers to meet efficiency targets set by the Government.

Mark Browning, Chief Financial Officer at Anesco said Santander UK’s funding is key to supporting its working capital requirements as it embarks on an ambitious build programme in the coming years.

"We are contracted to deliver large scale solar and energy storage projects over the next 12 months and Santander UK’s support will not only make the delivery of these projects possible but accelerate our development pipeline by enabling us to bring more renewables projects to market in the UK, as well as supporting our growth in Europe," he said.

Steve Bateman, Relationship Director at Santander UK, said Anesco’s pipeline of battery storage and solar energy developments will make an important contribution to the ability of the UK - and Europe - to produce a reliable flow of electricity from renewable sources. "Santander UK strongly supports clients such as Anesco that are bringing positive environmental change to the energy sectors in the UK and Europe," he said.

Global renewable energy updates

  • Atlas Renewable Energy has marked a new clean energy milestone in Chile, with the operation of one of the largest solar plants in the country. Sol del Desierto is located in the commune of María Elena, Antofagasta Region, and has a total capacity of 244MWp. With 582,930 solar panels spread over 479 hectares, the plant will generate 714GWh annually. 
  • Masdar continues to strengthen its support for global climate action, with the capacity of its clean energy project portfolio rising 40% in 2021. Despite the global pandemic, the electricity generation capacity of all projects Masdar has invested in – either installed or under development – increased from 10.7GW to over 15GW in 2021, according to the company's 2021 Annual Sustainability Report. Masdar's operating clean energy portfolio displaced almost 7.5mn tonnes of CO2 last year, a 38% rise on 2020.

  • LG Innotek plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. The company announced on the 23rd that it had finalised the '2040 Carbon Neutrality Plan' at a recent ESG committee meeting. 

  • New research by E.ON has revealed that over three quarters (77%) of Gen Z – those aged 16-27 – say a home with energy solutions such as a heat pump or electric vehicle charger installed is a priority when looking to buy or rent a new home. This is on a par with priorities such as location (85%), access to transportation links (83%) and outdoor space (77%).

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