Portfolio due diligence Refinancing a mixed technology portfolio – evaluating risks and optimisation potential

What was the aim of the work?

Natural Power carried out technical due diligence to support the refinancing of one of the UK’s largest renewable energy portfolios.


What was the outcome?

A consortium of international banks successfully refinanced the portfolio. It was also a finalist at the 2019 British Renewable Energy Awards, which celebrates projects that have accelerated the deployment of renewables in the UK.

Natural Power went on to advise Cubico in the sale of a minority stake of the portfolio to GLIL Infrastructure, which is a £1.8 billion infrastructure fund backed by Northern LGPS and Local Pensions Partnership.


What did Natural Power do to get this result?

We delivered a full review of permitting, grid and contracts, as well as assessing the operational performance of all 17 assets. Using operational data from the wind and solar farms, we provided a long-term energy yield estimate, which is the amount of energy generated by the sites in a typical year, for each site. It can be beneficial to group wind and solar projects within the same portfolio, as it reduces the year on year variability of portfolio energy generation and therefore provides more stable revenue. Our analysis showed that you can compensate for a particularly low wind speed year through higher than average sunniness. It also quantified how much more confident you can be in the average annual energy output of the portfolio, compared to looking at each individual wind and solar farm in isolation.