Irish solar power group in €22m Romanian deal

Dublin-headquartered green energy provider Alternus has acquired a solar park in Romania in a €22 million deal in a move that extends total installed capacity by almost a third.

Alternus’s acquisition of the 20MW solar park from Risen Energy is the largest single operating park the company has bought to date and takes annual recurring revenues to over €17 million, as against €4 million at the end of 2020. The park produces 25.5GWh of power a year.

Under the terms of the deal, Alternus has paid €22 million for full ownership of the operating company but has held back just under €1 million of the proceeds that will be released on conclusion of an ongoing regulatory enquiry.

"With this acquisition, we expect to maintain our average earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation [ebitda] margins of approximately 80 per cent," said the group's chief financial officer, Joseph Duey.

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Alternus, which is led by telecoms entrepreneur Vincent Browne, invests in solar photovoltaic parks across Europe.

Portfolio

The company has grown in four years from being a small Romania-based operator of two solar parks with 6MW capacity to becoming a pan-European independent power producer. It currently has a portfolio of 39 owned or contracted parks in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania and Poland in excess of 150MW capacity.

Closer to home, EDF Renewables Ireland is to start construction of three new solar farms in counties Wexford and Kilkenny this month. The projects will be among the first utility-scale solar farms to be built in Ireland and, once complete, will have a combined capacity of 17MW.

Coolroe Solar Farm (5MW) is located in Coolroe, Ballycullane, Co Wexford, with Blusheens Solar Farm (8MW) in Killinick, Co Wexford. Curraghmartin Solar Farm (4MW) is in Curraghmartin, Carrigeen, Co Kilkenny.

The projects are the first to begin construction following EDF Renewables’ acquisition of 100 per cent of Wexford Solar last year, which included eight projects with over 100MW of capacity across the country.

Construction is expected to take up to 10 months, to be completed in February 2022 at the earliest, and the three new solar farms will together supply enough low-carbon electricity to power the equivalent of more than 6,600 homes.