Enray Power closes £43M debt financing from Rabobank for 71MW Carlton solar farm
What's the deal? Enray PowerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has closed £43 million in debt financing from RabobankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → for its 71MW Carlton solar farm in North Yorkshire, UK. The project benefits from a combination of AR6 and AR7 contracts for difference (CfD) for up to 20 years.
The transaction marks the first phase of a wider development pipeline for Enray. Rabobank served as lead lender on the deal.
Why now? The UK's CfD scheme — the government's primary mechanism for supporting renewable energy — has been expanding through successive allocation rounds. Carlton's dual AR6 and AR7 contracts provide long-term revenue certainty, making it an attractive prospect for debt financing.
The UK has been pushing to accelerate solar deployment as part of its clean energy targets, creating a favourable environment for project finance deals like this one.
What could go wrong? Solar projects in the UK face familiar risks: grid connection delays, planning constraints, and potential changes to subsidy frameworks. North Yorkshire has seen growing competition for land use between agriculture and renewable energy development.
The 20-year CfD contracts mitigate revenue risk considerably, but construction and operational performance remain factors that lenders and developers must manage carefully.
The signal: Enray Power, classified as an early-stage developer and operator of UK solar and battery assets, securing a £43 million debt facility from Rabobank — a corporate lender with deep roots in food and agriculture — highlights how established infrastructure banks are backing newer entrants in UK renewables when long-term CfD contracts de-risk the revenue profile. With Carlton framed as the first phase of a broader programme, the deal suggests the CfD framework is functioning as intended: giving emerging developers the financial credibility to attract senior debt and scale their portfolios.
Read more: proximoinfra.com
Image: Robin Stott / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)
