One of Europe’s largest producers of renewable energy has confirmed the acquisition of five solar energy projects in Ireland.
Statkraft Ireland, a division of Norwegian company Statkraft, acquired the five projects across counties Meath, Laois, Tipperary and Cork. The five projects have a combined capacity of 275MW (megawatts).
The five fully-permitted projects were acquired from solar energy development company Lightsource. The acquisitions are the latest in a series of transactions which Statkraft Ireland has made in the renewable sector since 2018.
The five projects are:
- Blundelstown Solar Farm, Co. Meath;
- Harristown Solar Farm, Co. Meath;
- Ballymacadam Solar Farm, Co. Tipperary;
- Loughteague Solar Farm, Co. Laois;
- Monatooreen Solar Farm, Co. Laois.
In Ireland’s first competitive auction under the government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS-1) last month, Statkraft secured contracts for over 330MW of renewable power, including two wind projects (57MW) and two solar projects (276MW).
“One of the projects which we have acquired from Lightsource, namely Blundelstown in Meath, was actually successful just last month in RESS-1,” explained Kevin O’Donovan, managing director of Statkraft Ireland.
“The outcome of that particular auction was hugely encouraging and has given us the platform we need to increase the roll-out of green energy projects in Ireland,” he added.
“We are already quite advanced in developing the construction programme to deliver these RESS-1 projects,” O’Donovan added.