Qair UK expects that it will achieve financial close and start construction of its Brecks (45 MW), Lark Hill (72 MW), and Straws Hadley (up to 54 MW) solar PV projects this year, head of delivery and finance Manuel Balseiro told New Project Media in a recent interview.

Another circa 80 MW is consented but Balseiro is uncertain that this portion will be able to progress this year.

Brecks will be the first of Qair’s projects to achieve financial close, which is expected in March or April. “As soon as we hit financial close then NTP and start of construction come right after,” Balseiro said.

Balseiro said that Qair then expects to reach CoD around 12 months after financial close.

The financing process for Brecks is expected to inform those for Lark Hill and Straws Hadley, one of which is hoped to achieve a financial close in Q3 with the other following in Q4. CoD is then anticipated for Straws Hadley by the end of 2027, and for Lark Hill in H1 2028.

However, before taking the next steps in delivering the circa 170 MW of solar capacity, Qair is currently awaiting the UK’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) results after all three projects were submitted into the current round.

The sealed-bid window opened on January 5, 2025, and closed on January 9, with auction outcomes expected between February 6 and February 9.

“We’re waiting on CfDs for the three of them…that’s our main outstanding piece of the puzzle,” Balseiro said.

If the developer is able to secure a sufficiently high tariff, the projects will move forward.

According to COO Liam Kelly, Qair anticipates it could receive tariffs of above GBP 55 / MWh in the process. “We fully anticipate [that] we’ll get that, if not higher than that,” he added.

The developer hopes that a CfD will allow it to achieve its target of 80% leverage on debt to support its projects. Meanwhile, all-in capex costs for solar are north of GBP 500,000 / MW according to Balseiro, but he highlighted that this will be impacted by a spike in module prices expected this year.

CfDs are the preferred contracting method for Qair UK due to the certainty they offer but the developer is continuing to pursue PPAs as well, to contribute to a mixed portfolio. While the developer has yet to secure any agreements, Kelly is confident that interest from commercial offtakers will increase due to energy security concerns.

“I think energy uncertainty is going to return and I think it’s…[an] unfortunate bedfellow that’s here to stay,” he said. “The value of renewable energy will become not that it’s safe to the environment…it will be that it’s an energy source here, that we can control.”

For the moment, Kelly said “there’s people coming to us, but there’s issues around the time of the contracts”. He highlighted that in a previous negotiation, the offtaker dropped out in the advanced stages after failing to agree a contract closer to 10 years, while Qair targeted a length of about 15 years.

Kelly previously discussed financing for the projects with New Project Media last year, while they had different planned capacities.

Battery pipeline and project delivery focus

Alongside solar, Qair is also developing battery storage projects in the UK.

In July 2025, Qair secured planning consent for its first standalone battery, a 49.9 MW / 99.8 MWh project at Middleton Farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

It has since also been granted consent for a 300 MW / 600 MWh project south of Glasgow, Scotland.

An additional 2 GW of BESS has been submitted into the planning process.

“In the coming quarter we expect to get consented about another 1 GW of BESS projects which were submitted over the last 12 months,” Kelly said. “In addition to that, we’re hoping to get our first wind projects consented…and an additional 100 MW approximately of solar consented in Q1 2026.”

Qair submitted the planning application for its 24 MW Monashee wind farm in Scotland early last year.

Given its large battery pipeline, Qair UK has put acquisitions on hold. Last year the developer also took a step back from origination, deciding to focus on delivering its existing pipeline of solar and wind.

“Our pipeline was so big it was decided we just need to get assets on the ground,” Kelly said. “Our resource is ultimately getting things delivered, so we’ve hired a load of people into the finance department to help with bank financing and due diligence, the legal team has grown, [and] the construction team has grown because we want to ultimately get our assets built.”

The developer is now ramping origination back up, particularly in England and Wales, but Kelly noted the results of this won’t be evident immediately.

He said: “The farmers that we start speaking to now, it’ll be March or April before we finally agree heads of terms, it’s going to get into August before we get a grid offer back, so we won’t really start ramping up the developments of those projects till the back end of this year or early 2027.”

Reform impacts

Following NESO’s December 2025 announcement of a new pipeline of energy projects that will be prioritised for connection to the electricity grid, Qair has been informed of its Gate 2 or Gate 1 confirmations across the entire portfolio with all its generation (517 MW) in the former and all batteries in the latter.

But Kelly believes that the developer’s consented BESS projects could be accelerated as the grid reform process continues.

He said: “[We expect] those projects will move into Gate 2 because they’re fully consented and they have all the discharged conditions done and we’ve done the design with an ICP. So we’re ready to go.”

NESO began sending out formal Gate 2 offers in December 2025, and the remaining offers are expected by Q3 2026.

Kelly anticipates that as developers receive their offers, capacity in the queue will open up as projects are pulled out as they will not be consented or otherwise ready to move ahead in time to meet their connection date.

“We are moving forward on the premise that NESO are going to do what they said they were going to do, which is evaluate first ready, first connected based on your ability to action your milestones,” Kelly said. “If I have a consented project, my conditions are discharged and the design is complete, then I am first ready and I’m going to get moved to the front of the queue.”

“Come the reopening of the [window] at the end of March or in April, I can resubmit for a Gate 2 offer and then they will move into Gate 2. That’s supposed to be the process,” Kelly concluded.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM Europe subscribers.