NextEnergy Capital has signed a binding agreement to buy a portfolio of 12 solar projects in north-eastern Spain, totalling 248 MW. The price was not disclosed, nor was the seller. Even the basic facts about the assets, whether they are being built and how their power is sold, come from inference rather than announcement. What the deal does show clearly is how fast one new fund is filling up.
Key takeaways
- NextEnergy Capital announced on 12 August 2024 a binding agreement to acquire a 248 MW portfolio of 12 solar PV projects in north-eastern Spain, with the deal value and seller undisclosed.
- NextEnergy Capital made the Spanish acquisition through its NextPower V ESG fund, known as NPV ESG, and it was the fund's fourth investment.
- Enerdatics understands the 248 MW Spanish portfolio to be in construction, because NextEnergy Capital said its portfolio would include 348 MW of assets in construction after the deal, against 100 MW already under construction before it.
- Enerdatics understands the NextEnergy Capital portfolio in Spain to be contracted under corporate PPAs, based on the firm's other Iberian assets, which sell power that way.
- A month later NPV ESG agreed to buy the 110 MWp Pato solar project in Segovia from ib vogt, taking the fund to 574 MW across the US, Spain and Poland after five investments.
How do we know the projects are in construction?
From arithmetic on the buyer's own numbers, not from a statement. NextEnergy Capital did not say what stage the 12 projects had reached. It did say that, after the deal, NPV ESG's portfolio would include 348 MW of assets in construction. Before the deal the fund had 100 MW in construction. The 248 MW difference is exactly the size of the Spanish portfolio.
That is why Enerdatics treats the assets as in construction rather than operating or early stage. The hedge matters for valuation. A plant in construction still carries building and connection risk that an operating plant does not, but it is far closer to producing revenue than an early-stage project, which may never be built.
The portfolio is also made up of fairly small projects. Twelve plants totalling 248 MW average about 21 MW each. That is a different profile from a single large plant, with more connection points and more sites to build, but also less exposure to any one of them.
Why does the power sales arrangement matter?
Because it determines how much of the portfolio's revenue is fixed. A corporate PPA is a contract in which a company agrees to buy a plant's output, or the financial equivalent, at an agreed price for a set number of years. A plant with one has predictable income. A plant without one sells into the wholesale market and takes whatever price that market sets.
Enerdatics understands this portfolio to be contracted under corporate PPAs, again by inference. In March 2024 NextEnergy Capital energised a 260 MW solar portfolio across Spain and Portugal that was contracted that way, and the firm's other Iberian assets also sell under corporate PPAs. The firm's next Spanish acquisition followed the same model: 88.78 MWp of the Pato project's output is sold to Corning under a virtual PPA.
The fund's stated aim points the same way. NextEnergy Capital said the acquisition fits NPV ESG's strategy of building a solar and infrastructure portfolio across OECD markets that generates long-term stable cashflows. Contracted revenue is what turns a solar plant into that kind of asset.
How fast is NPV ESG deploying its capital?
Quickly. The Spanish portfolio was the fund's fourth investment. Its earlier deals were a 100 MW solar project in the United States and two operational portfolios of 50 MW and 66 MW in Poland, both selling under contracts for difference. A contract for difference is a government-backed arrangement that tops up a generator's revenue when market prices fall below an agreed level and claws back the excess when they rise above it.
The fifth investment came five weeks later. On 18 September 2024 NextEnergy Capital agreed to buy the 110 MWp Pato project from ib vogt, one of several projects ib vogt is building in Segovia. That took NPV ESG to 574 MW in about a year since its first close, with $745 million of commitments raised and a target of $1.5 billion by the end of 2024. At the time of the Spanish deal, the firm also had 500 MW of assets in exclusivity or advanced negotiations.
Enerdatics records 28 solar M&A transactions in Spain announced during 2024. Eleven carry a disclosed value. Once minority stakes are grossed up to 100 percent, those priced deals have a median of about $0.87 million per MW. Two of them involve assets in construction: Encavis paid about $0.75 million per MW for the 95 MW Almodovar park, and Amperisol Renewables agreed to pay about $0.94 million per MW for Greening Group's 54.78 MW portfolio. Neither the 248 MW portfolio nor the Pato project carries a disclosed price.
What does the deal signal for Spanish solar?
It signals that funds raising fresh capital see Spanish solar in construction as a way to deploy it at scale. Of NPV ESG's first 574 MW, 358 MW is in Spain, and on Enerdatics' reading all of it was bought before reaching operation. Buying at that stage lets a fund commit capital earlier than it could by waiting for finished, contracted plants such as the operating portfolio DWS bought from X-Elio.
It also signals how little of the Spanish market is visible. Seventeen of the 28 solar deals Enerdatics records in Spain for 2024 carry no price, and this one does not even name a seller. Buyers and analysts working out what a Spanish solar project in construction is worth have only a handful of reference points, and the two that exist sit about $0.2 million per MW apart.
Frequently asked questions
What did NextEnergy Capital buy in Spain in August 2024? NextEnergy Capital agreed to acquire a portfolio of 12 solar PV projects totalling 248 MW in north-eastern Spain. It bought the portfolio through its NextPower V ESG fund, and the price and seller were not disclosed.
Are the NextEnergy Capital Spanish solar projects operating? Enerdatics understands the projects to be in construction. The firm said its fund would hold 348 MW of assets in construction after the deal, up from 100 MW before it.
How large is NextEnergy Capital's NPV ESG fund portfolio? After its fifth investment, the Pato project in September 2024, NPV ESG held 574 MW across the US, Spain and Poland. It had raised $745 million of commitments and was targeting $1.5 billion.
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