NextEnergy Capital (NEC) had a second close of its third fund, NextPower III, of $280 million earlier this year.

It looks to invest in solar energy projects across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The fund had a first close in December 2018 of $160 million and has a fundraising target of $750 million.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been adopted by NEC as the underlying framework to measure and manage its impact on both the environment and society, which has been expanded to the whole value chain of the business.

Based in the UK, NEC has appointed Macquarie's Green Investment Group (GIG) as an independent environmental, social and governance (ESG) consultant to measure and report on the fund's ESG risks and opportunities. GIG will also produce Green Impact Reports to measure and produce comparable data on greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants avoided at asset and fund level, as well as other SDG-related impacts.

The fund has, so far, acquired four solar power plant projects, three in the US and one in Mexico, with a combined capacity of 285MW. It is targeting a portfolio of between 2.5GW and 3.0GW upon full capital deployment. Its first two investments, in the US, as well as the plant in Mexico are under construction, while the fourth project, in the US, was already operating when acquired. EF