Anesco Begins Development Of Renewable Energy With £12m Funding From Santander UK
Mar 27, 2022
Santander UK has provided Anesco with a £12m revolving loan to support its renewable energy development projects in the UK and Europe, including five battery storage projects and three solar power plants in the pre-construction stage.
Battery storage projects in Dundee, Melksham, Nottingham, Ipswich and Essex will be operational in spring 2023. The three solar farms in England and South Wales will start operating later this year.
Headquartered in Reading, Anesco was founded in 2010 with the aim of expanding internationally in Germany and the Netherlands. The company is targeting further growth - both organically and by acquisitions - in these markets and across Europe. A secure pipeline of its renewable energy projects is entering the construction phase, which the company expects will bring triple-digit growth to its current £70m annual revenue over the next few years.
The company has increased its workforce by 20% in the past nine months and now employs 200 people in the UK. The company expects this to grow by a further 20%-30% over the next two years, with roles spread across the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
Anesco focuses on solar power generation and energy storage, building more than 100 solar farms and more than 30 energy storage facilities in the UK and Europe. An industry leader, the company was responsible for the launch of the UK's first commercial energy storage installation in 2014, and six months later it installed Europe's largest optimised solar farm. In 2017, it built the UK's first subsidy-free solar power plant, Clayhill, in Milton Keynes. Then in 2019, it entered the balancing mechanism market together with State Grid for the first time.
In addition to developing, designing, building, operating and maintaining grid-scale renewable energy solutions, Anesco also provides market routing services for asset owners to optimize battery storage assets across markets. It is also one of the UK's largest providers of energy efficiency services under the government's Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, helping energy suppliers achieve energy efficiency targets set by the government.
Mark Browning, Chief Financial Officer of Anesco, said: "Santander UK funding is critical to support our working capital needs as we embark on an ambitious construction programme over the next 12 years. Delivering large-scale solar and energy storage projects within 12 months, Santander UK support will not only enable the delivery of these projects, but also support our growth in Europe by enabling us more renewable energy projects to be listed in the UK ."
Steve Bateman, Director of Relations at Santander UK, said: "Anesco's battery storage and solar development pipeline will make an important contribution to the UK - and Europe's - ability to generate a reliable flow of electricity from renewable energy sources. "Santander UK strongly supports customers such as Anesco who are bringing positive environmental change to the energy industry in the UK and Europe."
