NTR completes c.£38 million financing deal to support 80MW renewable pipeline

NTR has completed a c.£38 million financing deal with Rabobank to support development of two projects totalling 80MW in renewable energy generation.

The funding will support the development of the two wind and solar projects dubbed Murley Wind Farm and Ockendon Solar Farm, situated in Northern Ireland and London respectively.

This allows NTR to finance fully merchant revenues for Murley Wind Farm whereas Ockendon has been backed by a power purchase agreement (PPA) with telecommuncations giant BT Group who will use 100% of the power generated over 10 years.

“NTR and Rabobank are both dedicated to driving the European clean energy transition, and we are particularly pleased to have partnered with Rabobank on these two projects in such an innovative way,” said Nick Forster, head of structured finance for NTR.

“We collaborated well to develop a financing structure that enables a merchant project like Murley to be built to provide much needed clean power in Northern Ireland while preserving optimal sustainable returns for our investors.”

Ockedon will be “one of the largest” solar farms to be built on a repurposed landfill site in Europe, the firm stated, with 540W bifacial solar panels to be installed capable of capturing sunlight on both sides of the panels. This maximises its efficiency and results in increased output density.

Mobilisation works for the installation of the panels has already started and it is hoped that the project will be fully operational in Q3 2023.

Murley Wind Farm is a 21.6MW ready-to-build wind farm with six wind turbines located in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Construction of the project is expected to commence in the coming months.

“Rabobank is pleased to have supported NTR in structuring and financing Murley and Ockendon. Both projects will directly contribute to the decarbonisation goals in the UK, making this transaction a perfect fit with Rabobank’s mission to be the bank of the energy transition,” said Marc Schmitz, head of project finance renewables Europe for Rabobank.

“This transaction also represents a milestone in our collaboration and relationship with NTR, a leading developer in renewable energy projects.”

Once fully operational, the sites will have a combined capacity of just over 80 MW and will be able to produce clean energy from Q4 2023.