The closed end fund today announced it has bought development rights, grid connection costs and leasehold rights for a 20MW storage project, due to be built later this year in Liverpool. Merseyside vendors Shaw-Energi will receive approximately £1.5 million.
The fund today also announced it will in March pay investors 2.03 pence per share as an interim dividend. For the year ending 30 June, chairman John Rennocks set expectations for a full year dividend of 8.12 pence. The figure is expected to be fully covered by BISF’s earnings, Rennocks told investors.
“Energy storage has enormous growth potential in the UK and offers an exceptionally attractive additional revenue stream, diversifying income from our majority solar portfolio with its predictable regulated revenue profile”, the BSIF boss added
The fund’s share price was virtually unchanged at lunchtime, valuing BSIF at £611 million.
The first exclusively solar PV-focused investment company to float on the London Stock Exchange, Guernsey-registered Bluefield Solar Income Fund was spun out of Bluefield Partners in July 2013. The parent claims to have put $1 billion into solar PV since 2011.
Among Bluefield’s leaders, Howard Johns heads its Operations and Services entities. A pioneer of UK solar through his own enterprises such as Southern Solar, Johns is former director of the Solar Trade Association, now rebranded as Solar Energy UK.
Merseyside fun fact: Toxteth, Liverpool 8’s chic, much sought-after arrondissement which Lord Heseltine took to his bosom in the 1980s, includes a Bluefields Street. It bends right and left between Upper Stanhope Street and Upper Hope Street.
