DUBLIN: Greencoat Renewables Plc signed an agreement to acquire the Cloghan and Taghart windfarms from Statkraft under a forward sale model for a combined consideration of €123 million, a news release said.
Construction of the wind farms is scheduled to begin shortly, with the acquisition due for completion once each wind farm is fully operational, expected in late 2022.
Cloghan (37.8MW) is located in County Offaly, and Taghart (25.2MW) is located in County Cavan. Statkraft will manage the construction of each wind farm 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 Irish 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: “Statkraft is playing a leading role in the global transition to a low carbon future and I am really pleased to see to the financial partnership with Greencoat Renewables contributing to delivering Ireland’s carbon reduction targets.
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”.
Greencoat Renewables PLC is an investor in euro-denominated renewable energy infrastructure assets. Initially focused solely on the acquisition and management of operating wind farms in Ireland, the Company is now also investing in wind and solar assets in certain other Northern European countries with stable and robust renewable energy frameworks. It is managed by Greencoat Capital LLP, an experienced investment manager in the listed renewable energy infrastructure sector.