(Alliance News) - Foresight Solar Fund Ltd on Thursday said it will seek shareholder approval to amend its investment policy to allow it to put money into battery storage systems.
The company has convened a general meeting, to be held February 15, where it will request shareholder approval for amending its investment policy and allowing as much as 10% of gross asset value at time on investment to be invest in utility-scale battery storage systems. Most of these will be located adjacent to Foresight's solar farms.
Since its October 2013 launch, the company has acquired 58 ground based solar plants, of which 50 are in the UK, and has paid all target dividends so far.
Foresight Solar Fund highlighted that since launch, renewable technology markets have "experienced a continuous period of growth" thanks to worldwide decarbonisation efforts and falling solar installation costs.
Benefits of the proposed change, according to Foresight Solar Fund, include that it will "provide increased scale, diversification and operating efficiencies to the company's portfolio" as well as providing attractive returns from battery storage system assets on a risk adjusted basis, supporting the firm's dividend policy.
Moreover, the change would let Foresight Solar Fund keep deploying funds in its core UK market through battery storage system acquisitions where possible without needing to take part in "competitive third-party sales processes".
This would broaden the base of the firm's renewable technologies, giving "access to asset level distributions within a short-period following investments". This period is usually between six and nine months for assets under construction.
Shares in Foresight Solar Fund were up 0.3% at 101.32 pence in London on Thursday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL)