ScottishPower Acquires 800 MW Solar In UK

• ScottishPower has entered agreements to acquire over 800 MW solar PV portfolio in the UK
• Elgin Energy has agreed to sell its planned 519 MW PV project capacity with 70 MW co-located storage
• Lightsource bp will sell remaining capacity of the 17 project portfolio; all facilities will be spread across in England, Scotland and Wales

Spanish energy group Iberdrola's wholly-owned subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables (UK) Limited has taken over more than 800 MW combined solar power capacity in the UK under 2 separate agreements signed with Elgin Energy and Lightsource bp.

These deals take the company's market share in the UK's solar industry from 2% to 9%, stated Scotland based ScottishPower that claims to be the only 100% green integrated utility in the UK.

The 17 solar PV project portfolio comes to ScottishPower's kitty in the form of 12 Elgin Energy facilities representing 519 MW PV and 70 MW co-located energy storage capacity which the Irish independent solar and storage developer terms to be the UK's largest solar PV transaction to date. Projects will be located in England, Scotland and Wales.

Remaining 5 facilities out of the 17-project portfolio have been sold to the electricity transmission operator by Lightsource bp. While ScottishPower did not disclose the transaction details, it confirmed building the 800 MW portfolio is at an advanced stages of development and will be online by 2025 with a total expected investment of £300 million ($410 million).

ScottishPower aims to invest around £4 billion by 2025 to double the amount of renewable electricity it produces. Its parent company Iberdrola counts its global installed solar PV capacity at close to 3 GW of which 2.028 GW is in Spain alone. In the UK, it adds up to only 4 MW. The subsidiary says Iberdrola aims to grow its global PV numbers to 6 GW by the end of 2022, scaling it to 14 GW by 2025 as part of its investment plan for 2020-2025.