Greencoat Renewables to buy Cavan and Offaly wind farms for €123 million

It has been announced this week that Greencoat Renewables is set to buy two wind farms in counties Cavan and Offaly for €123 million.

Greencoat Renewables, the renewable infrastructure company invested in euro-denominated assets, will acquire Taghart wind farm in Co. Cavan and Cloghan wind farm in Co. Offaly, from Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy.

Construction of the wind farms is scheduled to begin soon, with the acquisition due for completion once each wind farm is fully operational, expected in late 2022.

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 Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) 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 that securing assets under RESS is an “important milestone” as the 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,” O’Donnell said.

Statkraft Ireland managing director, Kevin O’Donovan, added that he believes Ireland “will be one of the leading growth markets for wind and solar power, given the country’s significant renewable energy resources”.

Community Energy Grants scheme now open for applications

Meanwhile, in the last number of days, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan has launched the €28 million fund for community energy projects across Ireland – the Community Energy Grants scheme.

Funded under the National Retrofit Programme, it is now open for applications, offering grant support for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects throughout the country.

The scheme supports substantial investment in energy upgrades to homes and community and commercial buildings. This includes rented properties, businesses, sports and community facilities, public sector buildings and schools.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is administering the new scheme, which is an enhanced version of the previous Better Energy Communities scheme.

This new scheme has a “larger budget, will accommodate larger projects and now offers enhanced support for upgrade of rented properties”.

There will also be a shorter evaluation time for applications and a longer time in which to carry out the projects.