Cubico now owns all of Peel Cubico Renewables, the UK joint venture it set up with Peel NRE in 2021. Leap tags the deal at 2,296 MW. That is a large number for a business with six operating wind and solar farms. Most of it has not been built, and most of what has not been built is still being assessed.
Key takeaways
- Cubico Sustainable Investments announced on 16 January 2024 that it had acquired Peel NRE's 50 percent stake in Peel Cubico Renewables, taking full ownership of the UK joint venture the two companies formed in April 2021.
- The value of Cubico's acquisition of Peel NRE's 50 percent stake in Peel Cubico Renewables has not been disclosed.
- Peel Cubico Renewables holds onshore wind and solar PV development projects across England and Scotland totalling more than 350 MW, plus a further 1.7 GW in its feasibility pipeline.
- Leap lists six operating Peel Cubico assets with about 246 MW combined: the Frodsham, Scout Moor and Penmanshiel wind farms and the Owl's Hatch, Broxted and Hadlow solar plants.
- Under the Cubico and Peel NRE deal, Peel NRE's renewables development team transfers to Cubico, which will oversee project delivery from offices in London and Manchester.
What did Cubico actually buy from Peel NRE?
Cubico bought the other half of a company it already co-owned, and with it the people who ran the half it did not control. That second part matters as much as the shares.
When the joint venture launched in April 2021, the two partners split the work cleanly. Peel NRE, part of the regeneration business Peel L&P, identified sites and handled early-stage development. Cubico brought financing, route to market, construction and operation. The stated aim was more than 500 MW of onshore renewables across the UK over five to ten years, a mix of grid-scale projects and private wire developments. A private wire project supplies electricity by direct cable to a nearby user rather than exporting it to the grid.
How does the 2,296 MW break down?
The headline capacity is a sum of three very different things, and the parts add up almost exactly.
The largest component is the 1.7 GW feasibility pipeline. Feasibility is the earliest stage of development, where sites are assessed for resource, grid access and planning prospects before a project is formally progressed. On its own it accounts for about 74 percent of the 2,296 MW Leap records.
Development projects of more than 350 MW make up roughly 15 percent. The remaining 11 percent or so is operating capacity: three wind farms totalling 143.7 MW and three solar plants totalling 102.4 MW. Added together, the three parts give the 2,296 MW on the record.
The operating assets are not new. Scout Moor began operating in September 2008, Broxted in 2014, Owl's Hatch in 2015, Penmanshiel in 2016, and Frodsham and Hadlow in 2017. On a weighted average basis, Leap records the assets as having operated for 10 years.
How do the operating assets sell their power?
Through the UK's Renewables Obligation, as far as Leap's record shows. A Renewables Obligation Certificate, or ROC, is a tradeable certificate issued for each unit of renewable electricity under the UK's legacy support scheme. Generators sell ROCs alongside the power itself, usually to an energy supplier.
Two of the six assets have disclosed arrangements. The Hadlow solar farm sells 100 percent of its ROC and energy output to a UK energy supplier. Owl's Hatch qualifies for the government-mandated 20-year price for ROCs and also sells 100 percent of its ROC and energy output to a UK energy supplier.
The rest is inference. Based on the route to market of those two assets, Enerdatics estimates that the power from the other assets in the portfolio is also sold under the UK's ROC regime and utility PPAs. On a weighted average basis, the assets have a remaining contracted duration of 10 years.
Ten years of contracted revenue on 246 MW is a steady base, but it runs down. The portfolio's future value depends on converting the pipeline into new operating projects.
Why does the development team matter more than the operating fleet?
Because the feasibility pipeline is the biggest asset in the deal, and feasibility pipelines are made of judgement rather than steel.
A 1.7 GW feasibility book has no fixed value. Some sites will clear grid and planning hurdles. Many will not. The odds depend heavily on the people choosing which sites to push and which to drop. Under the joint venture, that judgement sat with Peel NRE. Cubico had the capital and the operating expertise, but it relied on its partner for origination.
Taking the team in house removes that dependency, along with the need for both partners in a 50/50 venture to agree on which projects to fund.
Cubico has framed the acquisition as a commitment to growing as a developer, owner and operator of renewable energy assets in the UK. The emphasis on developer is the telling part. An owner and operator could have been content with the six farms. A developer needs the pipeline and the people.
Enerdatics records 188 UK renewable energy M&A transactions announced across 2023 and 2024. Pricing is far more visible at asset level than at company level. Of 42 UK wind asset deals in that period, 18 carry a disclosed value, at a median of about $2.94 million per MW. Leap records only four UK wind corporate transactions across the same two years, and only one carries a per MW value. Cubico's buyout is one of the other three. A per MW figure would say little here in any case, because 2,296 MW bundles operating farms, development projects, feasibility sites and a team into a single number.
What does the deal signal for UK onshore renewables?
It signals that the joint venture model, where a landholder or regeneration business originates and a financial investor builds, can be a stepping stone to full control rather than a permanent arrangement. Once the investor has learned the pipeline and the people, buying out the originator becomes the cheaper way to keep both.
It also says something about how older operating assets fit into a growth strategy. Recent trades show buyers are still working out what older UK onshore wind farms are worth as they approach the end of their design lives. Inside a development platform, those assets do a different job: they provide cash flow while the pipeline matures.
The buyers active elsewhere in UK onshore wind are making a similar bet on development risk, choosing consented onshore wind clusters near positions they already hold. Cubico has gone the other way, taking on a pipeline dominated by feasibility-stage sites. If that pipeline converts, the price it paid for Peel NRE's half will look small next to the capacity it unlocks. If it does not, Cubico has bought a 246 MW portfolio and a team with a lot of sites still to prove.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Peel Cubico Renewables after the deal? Cubico Sustainable Investments owns 100 percent. It held 50 percent before acquiring Peel NRE's 50 percent stake, announced on 16 January 2024.
How much did Cubico pay for Peel NRE's stake? The deal value has not been disclosed.
What assets does Peel Cubico Renewables operate? Leap lists the 50 MW Frodsham, 65 MW Scout Moor and 28.7 MW Penmanshiel wind farms, and the 51.9 MW Owl's Hatch, 31.6 MW Broxted and 18.9 MW Hadlow solar plants, alongside more than 350 MW of development projects and a 1.7 GW feasibility pipeline.
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