Trina Solar sells 30 MW of UK solar assets to Pensions Infrastructure Platform

Tier-1 solar Chinese solar company Trina Solar has offloaded some 30 MW of PV capacity in the U.K. to Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP) – a fund for British pension investments – for an undisclosed sum.

According to a PiP press statement, the purchase of the solar assets, which comprise six 5 MW PV plants, is part of its £600 million ($750 million) Multi-Strategy Infrastructure Fund, and marks the PiP’s first foray into ground mounted solar asset ownership.

The first part of the deal involves three operational solar farms that were connected to the U.K. grid before the end of March last year, thus making them eligible for the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) at a rate of 1.2 ROC. These three plants are in the Midlands, with the remaining three assets – located in the Midlands, Kent and Yorkshire – due to be fully acquired by PiP once they are operational. This is expected before the end of March.

“We are pleased to have been able to work with Trina Solar to structure and execute a transaction that provides our investors with the long term, inflation linked cash flows they are seeking to support their accrued pension payment obligations,” said PiP chief investment officer Ed Wilson.

The investment platform revealed that it will “look to use the scale of the current portfolio as a foundation for further, carefully targeted acquisitions of similar assets”, pointing to these six plants’ ROC eligibility that makes them an attractive investment vehicle for funds such as PiP.