German energy giant RWE has significantly expanded and further strengthened its presence in the UK renewable energy market with the acquisition of JBM Solar making it a top 3 solar developer in the UK. JBM Solar, a large independent developer of solar and battery storage systems comes to the RWE fold from London-based renewables investor Susgen.
Susgen is a market leading funder and partner to sustainable energy development companies.
Currently the UK’s largest power generator and one of the largest renewable developers, RWE plans to invest 50 billion euros gross to grow its green core business internationally by 2030. Around £15 billion has been earmarked for the UK. It’s latest acquisition acknowledges RWE’s intention to continue growing and expanding its UK portfolio, one of RWE’s core markets, by adding further solar and battery projects.
The deal sees the company acquire a mature pipeline with a combined capacity of around 6.1GWac of solar and storage assets, which is split into 3.8 GW AC solar and 2.3 GW AC storage projects and predominantly located in central and southern regions of England. The acquisition of the JBM Solar business also comes with a team of around 30 professionals with extensive and established experience in the solar sector. The business was founded in 2012 and their headquarters based in London. The team has the knowledge and skills needed to cover the entire development process from land acquisition to construction readiness.
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A large proportion of the solar and storage projects already have secured grid connections and land. These projects are ready for final investment decisions and have already obtained the necessary planning permissions from the relevant authorities. It is anticipated that the initial projects planned for this pipeline will come online by the end of 2024. This includes projects such as 49.9MW solar farms in Devon, Ashorne and Hinckley and Bosworth, which have secured planning permission over the last year. RWE expects to see about 450 MW AC being commissioned on average annually form the acquired pipeline.
Katja Wünschel, CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia of RWE Renewables said:
“We are already well positioned in offshore and onshore wind in the UK. Now we are significantly strengthening our renewables business by adding this already very advanced solar and battery pipeline. The combined development pipeline, one of the largest in the UK, provides tremendous opportunities for sustainable and value accretive growth. The first projects could be delivering electricity as early as next year. I´m very pleased to welcome our new colleagues from JBM Solar and to jointly driving forward the green expansion of RWE in the UK.”
Significant growth in solar and batteries is expected in the UK, with the government aiming for a five-fold increase in solar capacity over the next 13 years. This would see an increase from 14 GW today to 70 GW by 2035. The government also has an ambitious target for the expansion of battery storage. Its capacity is predicted to more than quadruple within 4 years, from 1.5 GW today to 6.5 GW by 2026.
RWE already has a strong portfolio in UK wind power with a combined capacity of more than 2.6 GW (RWE pro-rata) consisting of 10 offshore and 33 onshore wind farms in operation. RWE has one of the largest offshore wind pipelines in the UK with its further offshore wind projects under construction or development and plans to establish commercial scale floating wind farms, including in the Celtic Sea. The company is playing an important part in helping the UK government to achieve its target of increasing the UK offshore wind capacity to 50 GW by 2030. RWE is also looking at ways to grow its development and operating projects in the area of onshore wind power.
As well as acquiring JBM Solar, RWE is already aspiring to expand its own portfolio of solar sites in the UK as part of the investment earmarked for the UK. To give an example of this, RWE has announced plans for an up to 600MW solar development on land in south Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire in December.
