Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) has seen its renewable generation production increase by 22% year-on-year (YoY) to 836GWh.
The fund, whose portfolio includes 754MWp of solar and 58MWp of onshore wind, added to to the 688GWh of electricity generation recorded in 2021/22 primarily due to irradiation levels that were 6% higher than the company’s forecasts, a 3.1% increase from the 2021/22 financial year.
The fund stated that total revenue for solar during the period was £157.2 million, 19% higher than forecast and 121% higher than the previous financial year. This was primarily attributed to power purchase agreements (PPA) commencing as the average power price rose from £57/MWh in the previous financial year to £141/MWh – a 147% increase.
Despite this, BSIF’s net asset value (NAV) saw a slight YoY decrease from £858.4 million to £854.2 million.
It is worth noting that BSIF is continuing to expand its project pipeline within the UK. This includes projects totaling 93MW in capacity under construction, 595MW worth of projects approved, 364MW in planning and 377MW of potential capacity. In total, this comes to 1.43GW with 956MW being solar and 473MW being battery energy storage systems (BESS).
John Scott, chair of Bluefield Solar, said: “We are delighted to report on a further period of strong financial performance in this, the company’s tenth year of operations. Over that decade, we have experienced significant changes in the emergence of renewables as an asset class and as a proportion of UK generation against a variety of backdrops in the investment environment. Solar and wind have grown from 8.5% to 28.8% of indigenous generation in this time.
“In this latest period of strong performance irradiation was above expectations, wind revenues outperformed our forecasts, we sold our electricity at record prices, our regulated revenues increased with inflation and our 129 solar PV plants performed well.
“Accordingly, we were able to increase total declared dividends for the period to 8.60pps (2022/23 8.20pps), ahead of our original target of 8.40pps. My strong belief is that Bluefield Solar has a major role to play in the future of Britain’s rapidly changing electricity mix and your Board looks with confidence at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”