NextEnergy Solar Fund, announced the energisation of its first two international solar co-investments alongside NextPower III ESG ("NPIII ESG"), bringing an additional 260MW online in Europe and increasing NESF's total installed net capacity to 979MW. The two assetsconsist of a 210MW solar project located in Santarém, Portugal, known as Santarém, and a 50MW solar asset located in Cadiz, Spain, known as Agenor. The combined assets are expected to produce 445GWh of renewable electricity every year, the equivalent of powering approximately 126,700 homes. NESF directly owns 13.6% of Santarém, 24.5% of Agenor, and 6.21% of NPIII ESG. The energisation of these assets adds 46MW to NESF's total installed net capacity on a look-through basis. Both Santarém and Agenor benefit from long-term contracted revenues through Power Purchase Agreements ("PPAs") with Statkraft, a high-quality corporate off-taker in Europe's energy market. The PPA covering Santarém is notable, being the largest PPA in the history of Portugal to date, showing the continued demand for high-quality corporate PPAs across the European market.
NPIII ESG, into which NESF invested $50m in June 2021, is a private fund exclusively focused on the international solar infrastructure sector, principally targeting projects in carefully selected OECD countries, including the US, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Greece, and Italy. NPIII ESG has 173 solar and storage assets, totalling 1.8GW.