The pension provider for North Somerset Council is part of a £230 million investment into solar farms which aims to help generate power for around 52,000 houses across the southwest.

Avon Pension Fund has collaborated with six other organisations like it to invest the money, which is part of a wider £330 million commitment to the solar project.

The deal will see investment in 11 already operational solar farms across the southwest region, as part of a commitment from the Council and APF to help tackle climate change and support the provision of renewable energy to the national grid.

Locations for the solar farms include sites in Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Devon, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

North Somerset Council's pension fund is managed by APF, who look after the pension funds of 140,000 people from North Somerset and other large local authorities in the surrounding area.

APF invest the money from these local authorities into things like infrastructure in order to turn a profit and hopefully provide payments far in to the future for scheme members.

Pension scheme members can include employees of local unitary councils, academies, universities, town and parish councils, housing associations and charities.

APF have entered the solar projects investment as part of a collaboration with other Local Government Pension Scheme funds that include organisations from Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.

Together they serve over 550,000 pension scheme members and have assets approaching £23 billion.

The deal for the solar farms involves Toucan Energy’s UK solar portfolio being majority acquired by Schroders Greencoat, the specialist renewables manager of Schroders Capital.

A significant portion of the Toucan portfolio is being acquired by the six LGPS schemes through Schroders Greencoat’s Wessex Gardens Limited Partnership, an arrangement set up in 2023 to manage these types of locally focused renewable energy investments.

Between them the six LGPS Funds will invest £230 million in the Wessex Gardens Limited Partnership into the solar deal, as part of a wider £330m commitment to the project.

Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall, Vice Chair of the Avon Pension Fund Committee, said: “Climate change is a huge issue and we all must play our part in protecting our planet for future generations.

“I was delighted that our pension fund recently announced that we were bringing forward the date when our investments would achieve net zero emissions to 2045.

“This latest investment is part of our plan for meeting that goal. 

 “This investment, in collaboration with other partner funds from the south-west, demonstrates our commitment to tackling climate change and also investing in the local area.”

The 11 solar assets locations are: Grange Farm, South Gloucestershire; Patchway, Bristol; Mendip Hills, Bath; Dunkeswell Airfield, Devon; Manor Farm, Gloucestershire; Wendlebury, Ofordshire; Trowle Common, Wiltshire; Wroughton Airfield Solar Park, Wiltshire; Bentham, Wiltshire; Long Newnton, Wiltshire/Gloucestershire border.