Renewable infrastructure company Greencoat Renewables has announced an agreement to acquire two windfarms in counties Offaly and Cavan from Statkraft under a forward sale model for a combined consideration of €123 million.
Construction of the windfarms is scheduled to begin shortly, with the acquisition due for completion once each windfarm is fully operational, expected in late 2022.
Cloghan (37.8MW) is located in Co Offaly, and Taghart (25.2MW) is located in Co Cavan. Statkraft will manage the construction of each windfarm and will continue to provide trading and operational management services for the wind farms once operational.
Both wind farms benefit from 15-year fixed-price contracts, secured under the recent RESS 1 auction. This is the first Greencoat Renewables acquisition supported by the Government’s RESS scheme.
Paul O’Donnell, partner at Greencoat Capital, the investment manager, said: “Securing our first assets under RESS is an important milestone for us as the RESS auctions will continue to support the growth of the Irish renewables market.
“We expect this combination of contracted revenues and forward purchases to become commonplace in both Ireland and Europe over the next few years, and we believe Greencoat Renewables is well positioned, given our scale and the strength of our relationships.
“We look forward to working with Statkraft and adding these two quality wind farms to our portfolio in two years’ time.”
Statkraft Ireland managing director Kevin O’Donovan said his company was “playing a leading role” in the global transition to a low-carbon future.
“I am really pleased to see to the financial partnership with Greencoat Renewables contributing to delivering Ireland’s carbon-reduction targets,” he said.
“We believe that Ireland will be one of the leading growth markets for wind and solar power, given the country’s significant renewable energy resources.”
