EDF Renewables has sold three Scottish onshore wind farms to Vantage RE. All three already hold planning consent, the hardest and slowest step in UK onshore wind. EDF has spent years getting them there, and it is selling just as the risk falls away. The price has not been disclosed.
Key takeaways
- Vantage RE announced on 2 February 2024 that it had acquired three onshore wind development sites in Scotland from EDF Renewables, with the deal value not disclosed.
- The EDF Renewables sites sold to Vantage RE are the 25.8 MW Camilty wind farm in West Lothian, the 25.3 MW Shelloch wind farm near Fintry in Stirlingshire and the 67.2 MW Troston Loch wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, a combined 118.3 MW of wind capacity across 25 turbines.
- Enerdatics records the EDF to Vantage RE transaction at 138.3 MW, because Enerdatics understands that the Troston Loch site will also include a 20 MW energy storage facility.
- All three Scottish wind farms in the Vantage RE acquisition have already received planning consent, and EDF said the sale is part of a strategy to concentrate on earlier-stage projects in the UK.
- Across 14 UK onshore wind transactions involving projects under development announced in 2023 and 2024, Enerdatics records only three with a disclosed price, at a median of $0.23 million per MW.
Why would a developer sell projects that already have consent?
Because consent is the point at which a development project changes owner type. Before it, the work is land, surveys, community engagement and planning risk, which suits a developer with a team and a pipeline. After it, the work is procurement, grid, finance and construction, which suits an owner with capital and a long holding period.
EDF has said as much. The sale is part of its plan to concentrate on projects at an earlier stage of development within the UK. Read plainly, that means EDF wants to be paid for the part of the process where it adds most value and then recycle the capital and staff into the next set of sites.
The buyer is not a stranger. EDF and Vantage RE already work together through a joint venture for the Blyth Offshore Demonstrator in England, set up in 2021. A counterparty that has already been through diligence with you is a faster, cheaper exit than an auction, which matters for a seller that wants its people back on new sites.
What exactly did Vantage RE buy?
Three sites of very different scale. Two are small. Camilty is a six-turbine site with tip heights of up to 149.9 metres, built to run for about 30 years. Shelloch has five turbines, and it is the only one of the three where some turbines go higher, with two at 180 metres and three at 149.5 metres.
Troston Loch is the anchor of the package. At 14 turbines and 67.2 MW it holds more than half of the wind capacity on its own, and it is the site Leap links to a storage facility. Tip height is the height of a turbine with a blade pointing straight up, and in Scotland it is one of the main things a planning decision turns on, because taller turbines are more visible but generate more power per site.
There is a gap between the two capacity figures attached to this deal. The three wind farms add up to 118.3 MW. Leap records the transaction at 138.3 MW. The difference is exactly the 20 MW of storage that Enerdatics understands Troston Loch will include. That is an Enerdatics assessment, not a figure the parties announced, and readers comparing this deal to others on a per MW basis should use the 118.3 MW of wind.
What does a consented Scottish wind site come with?
Obligations as well as rights. Both companies have committed to setting up community benefit funds once the wind farms are operating. A community benefit fund is a voluntary annual payment from a wind farm to local groups, now standard practice in Scotland and often a factor in how a community responds to an application.
For Camilty, Leap records the scale of that commitment. Once operating, the site is expected to pay around $150,000 a year, or about $4.5 million over its life. That cost travels with the asset, so it is part of what Vantage RE has priced in.
Troston Loch is also expected to meet the electricity needs of about 40,000 homes in the region, which gives a sense of why the largest of the three sites carries most of the value in the package.
Where does the deal sit against UK onshore wind pricing?
The honest answer is that the price is not known, and that is typical. Development-stage wind in the UK rarely trades with a disclosed number, so any benchmark rests on a thin base.
Enerdatics' data shows 26 UK onshore wind transactions announced in 2023 and 2024, of which eight carry a disclosed price. Fourteen involved projects still under development, and only three of those were priced, at a median of $0.23 million per MW within a range of $0.12 million to $0.28 million. Ten involved operating wind farms, five of them priced, at a median of $2.03 million per MW. On those figures an operating UK onshore wind farm changes hands at roughly nine times the price per MW of a project that has not yet been built.
That gap is the value a buyer like Vantage RE is trying to capture. As an illustration only, and not a reported price, 118.3 MW at the development median would imply about $27 million. Because consent removes the planning risk, it would be reasonable to expect these sites to sit towards the top of the development range rather than the bottom. Construction and grid connection still sit between them and the operating multiple.
What does the deal signal for UK onshore wind?
It shows how the onshore value chain is splitting. Developers with an early-stage edge, which is how EDF now describes its own UK role, want to sell at consent rather than build. Owners with a long horizon want to buy at consent rather than take planning risk themselves. The handover point is moving to the moment the planning permission arrives.
It also shows how little of that market is visible. The same pattern runs through other UK development deals in Leap, including Cubico's buyout of Peel Cubico Renewables, where most of the capacity was still at feasibility, and offshore, where RWE bought Vattenfall's consented Norfolk zone at about $0.29 million per MW. Consented sites are where much of the dealmaking happens and where the fewest prices are published.
For Vantage RE, three consented sites, an existing relationship with the seller and a possible storage element at the largest site make a compact entry into Scottish onshore wind. What remains open is the price it paid, and how quickly it can move the sites from consent to construction.
Frequently asked questions
Which wind farms did Vantage RE buy from EDF? Vantage RE acquired three consented onshore wind sites in Scotland from EDF Renewables: Camilty (25.8 MW) in West Lothian, Shelloch (25.3 MW) in Stirlingshire and Troston Loch (67.2 MW) in Dumfries and Galloway.
How much did Vantage RE pay EDF for the Scottish wind farms? The deal value has not been disclosed. Enerdatics records only three priced UK onshore wind development deals across 2023 and 2024, at a median of $0.23 million per MW.
Why did EDF sell the Scottish wind sites? EDF said the sale is part of its strategy to concentrate on projects at an earlier stage of development in the UK, recycling capital from consented projects into new sites.
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