Island seeking to raise €20m for wind farms and solar projects

Island Renewable Energy, which was founded in 2009 by several former executives of NTR, is seeking to raise up to €20 million in equity to fund the rollout of wind farms and solar projects in Ireland, Wales and Portugal.

The company believes it can raise up to half of the cash from high net worth clients of stockbrokers in Dublin, and is currently in talks with several firms to agree an investment mandate.

Island was founded by its chief executive Michael King, the former chief operating office of NTR, and its chief financial officer Dave Geary, formerly the group treasurer of NTR. It is chaired by Paul Dowling, the former chief executive of Airtricity.

Mr King told The Irish Times yesterday that it has a development pipeline of 700MW, and plans initially to roll out 100MW annually for the next four years.

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It has retained Deloitte to help it find find investors for projects in Portugal, where it will also break ground next year on an 8MW solar farm. It will also begin construction next year on three solar farms in Wales, totalling 24MW. It has also entered into an agreement with Portuguese authorities to build a 60MW wind project in the Braganza district, a total investment of €80 million.

In Northern Ireland, it is about to submit a planning application for three wind farms totalling 50MW. Island does not operate in this State, where the market is already crowded with renewables companies.

The first 100MW will require total equity of about €36 million, although its partners on various projects will also put up a chunk of the capital.