Scotsman Insider launches Renewables 50 ranking

However, looking at where the money actually moved this year, a different picture emerges with almost every significant deal in the ranking driven by capital from outside the UK.

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TotalEnergies is merging its UK Upstream business into Neo Next, taking a 47.5 per cent stake in the renamed Neo Next+ alongside Norwegian and Spanish-owned partners, a deal that hands effective control of the UK’s largest independent oil and gas producer to a consortium with no UK ultimate parent among its three major shareholders.

Genel Energy’s $360m takeover of Capricorn Energy follows the same shape, structured as much around Cairo’s regulatory approval as Capricorn’s own shareholders, landing as its turnover falls 15 per cent.

Even the UK-headquartered dealmakers are consolidating rather than growing organically.

Drax’s £36m acquisition of Flexitricity is the one exception.

A genuine grower, turnover up 18.9 per cent, being bought rather than left to expand on its own steam.

Set against that, the ranking’s other homegrown growth story, Ross-shire Engineering, up 19.4 per cent on a share of Scottish Water’s £1.54bn DV4 framework, grew through a contract win with a UK public body, not inbound investment.

Domestic growth is coming from domestic procurement and overseas capital is arriving through acquisition.

Even the regulated majors complicate the “UK-owned” picture.

SSE’s £33bn five-year investment programme is being funded in part by £2.4bn in hybrid and senior debt raised this year, a reminder that owning the equity and owning the balance sheet behind expansion aren’t the same thing.