Scottish Power has signed two deals to acquire 17 solar projects with a combined capacity of 800MW – 12 of them from Elgin Energy and five from Lightsource BP.
The projects across England, Wales and Scotland, representing a total investment of around £500 million, are in advanced stages of development and will be operational by 2025.
Scottish Power said the deals will put it at the forefront of the UK’s solar sector, with its market share rising from 2% to 9%.
The acquisition from Elgin Energy also includes a co-located 70MW battery storage project.
Lindsay McQuade, chief executive of Scottish Power Renewables said: “Moving into 2022, we are continuing to push forward our plans at Scottish Power to support the transition to net zero. This boost to our solar generation pipeline complements our existing growth plans for wind and storage.
“With plans to invest close to £4 billion by 2025, doubling the volume of renewable electricity we produce, we are taking action every day to deliver on our commitment to deploy more renewables at scale and at speed to electrify how we live, work and travel. This addition to our portfolio will help accelerate that journey and play an important role in tackling the climate emergency.”
Scottish Power sold its portfolio of gas, hydro and pumped storage assets to Drax at the beginning of 2019 to focus on renewable generation. At the end of the year, the company announced plans to combine wind, solar and storage into hybrid projects for most of its future developments and begin building solar farms for the first time as part of the strategy.