NextEnergy Capital took home two awards this year: Sustainable investment initiative of the year – EMEA and Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) report of the year.

For the sustainable investment initiative award, the investment manager highlighted the acquisition of Project Giugliano by NextPower V, its fifth fund.

Giugliano is a 73MW agrivoltaics project in Italy that combines solar energy with sustainable agriculture and the aim to restore 140 hectares of land, of which at least 70% will be dedicated to agricultural activities. The project contributes to NextEnergy Group's nature strategy target to have 30% of managed land under a dual-use regime by 2030.

"A really interesting initiative with strong co-benefits and potential to scale for important real-world impacts," said one judge. "It provides an innovative example of impact on nature and climate, and a [potential] new income stream for the sector."

At the same time, NextEnergy Solar Fund's Sustainability and ESG report for the year ended 31 March 2025 was the judges' choice for the TNFD report of the year category and one of the first such reports for a listed renewable infrastructure company.

The report builds on NextEnergy Solar Fund's early adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) S1 and S2 standards, offering an integrated, single investor-facing report.

In line with TNFD, the report follows the Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare (LEAP) process to identify nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and operations across both its direct operations and upstream supply chains.

In recognition that solar assets interact with nature through their land use, habitat conditions and local conditions, the report sets out how it conducted a location-specific nature assessment of each site.

A supply chain assessment was also included in the report, which is typically an area currently left absent in TNFD reports due to data challenges.