After acquiring solar farms from RES, Power Capital Renewable Energy plans to invest €140m in six solar farms across Ireland.
Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE) backed by French investor Omnes Capital, has concluded another major acquisition this year of six ready-to-build solar farms with a combined capacity in excess of 240 MW from Renewable Energy Systems (RES).
This brings PCRE’s total portfolio of solar farms to over 1.1GW making it the largest solar independent power producer in Ireland.
“It’s a disappointment to think that Ireland still produces so much of its energy in the sunny months from coal and gas, when the alternative is right here, right now”
RES, one of the world’s largest independent renewable energy companies, has been developing the portfolio of solar farms in Ireland over the last number of years and has obtained planning permissions from local councils and grid connections from ESBN and Eirgrid.
“Solar energy will play a critical role in Ireland’s energy future, and we look forward to supporting the team to bring the projects into operation,” said Lucy Whitford, UK and Ireland managing director for RES.
The solar farms are in several counties including Galway, Waterford, Clare, and Kildare.
Vision to be Ireland’s largest solar power provider
The multi-million-Euro deal underlines PCRE’s objective in becoming Ireland’s largest solar power provider.
“This is a major statement of our ambitions in Ireland,” said Justin Brown, co-founder of PCRE.
“We know RES have a great track record in developing renewable energy projects in Ireland and we hope to do further deals with the RES team in the future. It’s a disappointment to think that Ireland still produces so much of its energy in the sunny months from coal and gas, when the alternative is right here, right now. We need policy makers to remove the barricades for renewable energy in Ireland, if Ireland is to get even close to meeting our CO2 reduction targets by 2030”.
The company intends to submit some of these assets into the upcoming RESS auction and will also continue to seek corporate off takers looking to reduce their CO2 by entering “Power Purchase Agreements”.
PCRE plans to invest a further €140 million in constructing the projects over the next three years.
Construction of these projects is set to begin in 2022.
“We have been working with a great team in RES and they are exactly the sort of company we see being able to do business with again in the future,” said Peter Duff, director of PCRE.
“It has been an exciting year for PCRE, not only growing the pipeline but also the creation of jobs. We have doubled the size of our team and continue to look for new talent committed to the challenge in the decarbonisation of Ireland’s energy.”
