Toucan Energy went into administration in November 2022, with a local council that had funded its solar projects as its main creditor. Fourteen months later its solar farms sold for about $890.6 million. A forced sale by administrators usually means a discount. This one produced the highest price per MW of any Schroders Greencoat UK solar purchase with a disclosed value in Enerdatics' records since 2023.
Key takeaways
- Schroders Greencoat agreed on 25 January 2024 to acquire a 513.5 MWp portfolio of 53 operating solar farms across England, Wales and Northern Ireland from Toucan Energy for about $890.6 million, with Tokyo Century as co-investor.
- The sale followed a competitive bidding process run by Interpath Advisory as joint administrators of Toucan Energy Holdings 1 Limited, which entered administration in November 2022 with Thurrock Council as its main creditor.
- Thurrock Council, which had invested $827 million in Toucan's solar projects, expects around $636.1 million from the sale to offset total debt of about $1.78 billion.
- Enerdatics records seven UK solar acquisitions by Schroders Greencoat since 2023, three with a disclosed value, and at about $1.73 million per MWp the Toucan price is the highest of the three, above $1.47 million per MW for 70 MW from Foresight Group in February 2023 and $0.91 million per MW for 110 MWp from Metlen in July 2024.
- Enerdatics has identified from a Toucan Energy filing that power from some of the portfolio's assets is sold under Feed-in Tariff contracts at $76.3 per MWh and 1.4 ROCs per MWh.
How does an insolvent seller achieve a full price?
By being insolvent at the level of the holding company rather than the assets. Administration is a UK insolvency procedure in which an appointed administrator runs a struggling company with the aim of rescuing it or getting the best return for its creditors. The administrator's duty is to the creditors, and the best way to serve them here was to run a competitive sale of operating assets that were generating cash throughout.
The solar farms were not the problem. The problem was the funding structure above them. Thurrock Council had invested $827 million in Toucan's solar projects and became the main creditor when Toucan failed. Leap records the sole purpose of the sale as reducing the seller's debt. The council expects around $636.1 million of the proceeds against total debt of about $1.78 billion, so even a strong price leaves it short of what it put in.
A buyer bidding for 53 working solar farms in an administrator's auction is not buying distress. It is buying assets whose owner had no choice about selling, in a process designed to extract the highest bid. That combination produces a full price, not a fire sale.
What is Schroders Greencoat actually paying for?
For revenue that much of the market cannot get any more. The portfolio sells its power under a mix of PPAs, Renewables Obligation certificates and Feed-in Tariff agreements. A Feed-in Tariff is a fixed, inflation-linked payment per unit of generation guaranteed by the government for older small-scale projects. The Renewables Obligation issues tradeable certificates, known as ROCs, for each unit of renewable output. Both schemes are closed to new projects, so a solar farm accredited under them carries a support payment that no newly built farm can obtain.
That is why the per MW price sits where it does. Enerdatics has identified from a Toucan filing that some of the farms sell power at $76.3 per MWh under Feed-in Tariff contracts and earn 1.4 ROCs per MWh. Revenue of that kind is close to a bond coupon. It also explains the buyer: Schroders Greencoat is the largest manager of operating solar farms in the UK, with 1.35 GWp under management, and its business is owning subsidised operating assets for income.
The portfolio also brings at least one notable customer relationship. Toucan supplies power to 33 Cambridge colleges from two of its solar farms within a 30-mile radius of the university.
Who ends up owning the farms?
A spread of long-term savers, several of them councils. Most of the portfolio goes to funds managed by Schroders Greencoat, including Greencoat Solar II LP, Greencoat Renewable Income LP and recently launched mandates. A significant portion is being bought by six local government pension schemes, Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, through Schroders Greencoat Wessex Gardens LP, a place-based renewable energy fund set up in 2023. Tokyo Century co-invests.
The result is a neat reversal. One council lost money by funding these solar farms directly. Six other councils' pension funds are buying them, through a specialist manager, at a price that values them above most comparable UK portfolios.
Enerdatics records 13 priced asset transactions in operating UK solar announced between January 2023 and June 2025. Grossed up to 100 percent where a stake was sold, their prices run from $0.91 million to $2.84 million per MW, with a median of $1.21 million. Only two price above Toucan's $1.73 million per MWp, and both are small rooftop or residential portfolios: Downing's 13.8 MW residential purchase from Foresight at about $2.39 million per MW and Atrato Onsite Energy's 34 MW rooftop purchase from Federated Hermes at about $2.84 million per MW. The nearest utility-scale comparable is UK Power Networks' $114.07 million for SDCL's 69.1 MW UU Solar portfolio, at about $1.65 million per MW. Lightsource bp's 247 MW sale to Bluefield Solar and GLIL Infrastructure in December 2023 priced at about $1.13 million per MW. One caution applies. Toucan's capacity is quoted in MWp, the panels' direct current rating, which is usually higher than the alternating current export capacity, a gap Enerdatics has explored for newer UK solar projects. Measured per MW of export capacity, the Toucan price would be higher still.
What does the deal signal for UK operating solar?
That subsidy-era assets command a premium regardless of who is selling. Toucan priced about 43 percent above the median of that set while being sold by administrators for a council in financial distress. The seller's position had no visible effect on the price, because the buyer was paying for contracted, government-backed revenue that a competitive auction exposed to every bidder.
It also shows where that revenue is migrating. Specialist managers are aggregating closed-scheme solar into long-duration vehicles for pension money, and Schroders Greencoat is already the largest manager of operating UK solar. As the Feed-in Tariff and Renewables Obligation portfolios change hands, the pool of such assets left to buy shrinks, and there is no new supply. For investors who want that profile, the next portfolio will be scarcer than this one was.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Toucan Energy sell its solar portfolio? Toucan Energy Holdings entered administration in November 2022, with Thurrock Council as its main creditor. The administrators at Interpath Advisory ran a competitive sale to reduce the company's debt, and Thurrock Council expects around $636.1 million from the proceeds.
How much did Schroders Greencoat pay per MW? About $890.6 million for 513.5 MWp, or roughly $1.73 million per MWp. Enerdatics records that as the highest of Schroders Greencoat's three priced UK solar acquisitions since 2023.
Who advised on the Toucan Energy sale? RBC Capital Markets was financial adviser and Eversheds Sutherland and PwC were legal advisers to Schroders Greencoat. KPMG and Interpath Advisory were financial advisers, Herbert Smith Freehills legal adviser and Natural Power technical adviser to Toucan Energy.
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