Deutsche Bank’s Project Finance London team has co-led with Netherlands’ Rabobank the GBP135m, seven-year non-recourse project financing of five solar farms across the United Kingdom (UK) for Aukera Energy (Aukera). The deal was announced by Aukera on 7 April.¹

In addition, Deutsche Bank’s Trust and Securities Services (TSS) teams facilitated account bank, facility agent and security agent services, and its Risk Management Solutions team supported Aukera with a long-term interest rate swap as hedge provider.

Five photovoltaic (PV) solar and co-located projects are, according to Aukera, all expected to be fully operational before the end of 2026. These comprise:

• Benthead project in North Ayrshire, Scotland. This will include an 85-megawatt peak (MWp) solar farm and a 31MW/62 megawatt-hour (MWh) co-located battery energy storage system. Once completed, the project will become one of Scotland’s largest solar and battery storage facilities.
• West House project in County Durham, that will have a solar capacity of 63MWp, enough to power around 20,000 houses.
• Henley project in Shropshire. This has a solar capacity of 18MWp.
• Kybo project in Kent, which has a solar capacity of 12MWp.
• Crays Hall project in Essex, which has a capacity of 39MWp.

Aukera co-founders Pascal Emsens and Catalin Breaban commented, “This transaction marks a significant milestone for Aukera. Over the last three-and-a-half years we have built an industry-leading team of experienced, motivated and committed renewable energy specialists. It has been fantastic to see this team working together so effectively to deliver this complex and efficient financing. It has been a pleasure to work alongside the excellent teams at Deutsche Bank and Rabobank to deliver this transaction, marking the beginning of Aukera’s next stage of growth as our project pipeline starts to reach maturity in all four of our markets.”

Danai Koutra, Head of Project Finance London at Deutsche Bank, added, “We are delighted to support Aukera’s 250 MW portfolio project financing, aligning with the UK’s energy transition goals and supporting Aukera’s exciting growth plans “

Reflecting on Deutsche Bank's wider mandate in this deal, Jason Connery, Head of Corporate Bank UK & Ireland in addition to Trust and Securities Services Europe continued, “Congratulations to Aukera and our deal partners. This strategic transaction highlights Deutsche Bank’s commitment to sustainable finance and providing complex structured solutions leveraging our full product suite.”

Sources

¹ See aukera.energy