Magnora and its UK partner, Gamcap, established Gamcap Magnora Development Company Ltd (GMDC) in Q4 2022. This vehicle enabled Magnora to expand their solar PV and BESS development activities in the UK, working with this well-established UK focused project developer. The project team is in London, UK. The company is owned 50/50 between the partners. 

The UK market continues to present significant development opportunities with political consensus to attain Net Zero by 2050 and reduce the UK’s reliance on imported energy. The UK has set a target of 70 GW of solar PV to be achieved by 2035 and, with just 14.3 GW installed as of end of 2022, the UK government has enacted a policy to give impetus to more renewables being connected to the electricity grid. Installed BESS will be at about 4GW by the end of 2023 with an estimated 24GW targeted by 2030 (Rystad Energy) and onshore wind is now back on the UK energy agenda. 

With pressure in the UK on oil companies and utilities to own and generate renewable energy, together with investment companies seeking these assets, there is a significant opportunity for GMDC to continue developing and selling projects in a market with restricted supply due to continuing consolidation of developers as large investors seek to secure pipelines of projects. GMDC has originated a pipeline of 575 MW of solar PV and BESS projects that are in various stages of development towards “ready to build”. GMDC’s pipeline is attracting the attention of utilities and corporates looking to secure a supply of projects across the UK. 

GMDC has formed strategic relationships with best-in-class service providers that deliver market advantages on land identification and grid connections, key to originating new projects. Also, the key to ensuring robust growth of the pipeline is GMDC’s internal project management and tracking system that is supported by specialist project managers. In addition, GMDC is currently developing bespoke software to better understand how much power the grid can handle more accurately. This will enable them to start additional new projects and grow their pipeline.

GMDC has secured all necessary project rights for an 80MW/160 MWh BESS project and is set to finalise the permitting for a 60MW dc solar PV plant with a co-located 20MW/40MWh BESS project in Q2 2024. The plan is to sell these projects at “ready to build” stage, and the first sale is expected in the first half of 2024.