BayWa r.e. sells Northern Ireland’s largest solar farm

The portfolio includes the 45 MW Bann Road solar farm, the largest solar farm realised so far in Northern Ireland and on the island of Ireland. It has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with SSE Airtricity, Northern Ireland’s second largest energy utility. The portfolio also includes six solar farms spread across England and Wales totalling 30 MW.

In all cases, BayWa r.e. will continue to provide ongoing expert operations and maintenance services to ensure maximum availability and yield optimisation of the plants.

“We are extremely pleased to see our well-established relationship with Greencoat continue with the sale of these solar farms”. Comments Matthias Taft, Board Member of BayWa AG, responsible for the energy business. “We have established a highly desirable reputation for acquiring and developing some of the most successful renewable energy projects in Europe and through our operation and maintenance teams, ensuring they continue to operate at peak efficiency. This makes us attractive to developers looking to partner and investors looking to acquire.”

This sale follows the acquisition by Greencoat UK Wind PLC, also managed by Greencoat Capital, of BayWa r.e’s 16.4 MW Bishopthorpe windfarm in July this year, which itself followed previous sales of solar and wind farms to Greencoat as part of the company’s growing portfolio of renewable energy assets.

Matthias Taft adds: “While this sale is of our remaining UK portfolio of solar projects, we remain very active in the UK market through our growing solar operations maintenance business, based in Milton Keynes, which has seen significant growth this year. And our wind project and operations management business based in Edinburgh.”

Projects sold to Greencoat Solar II LP include:

Projects

Bann Road – 45 MWp – 50 km Northeast of Belfast
Berthllwyd – 5 MWp – near Cardiff
Bilsborrow – 5 MWp – 50 km North of Liverpool
Bodwen – 5 MWp – 50 km West of Plymouth
Ebnal Lodge – 5 MWp – 50 km South of Liverpool
Hunger Hill – 5 MWp – near Middlesbrough
Sandhutton – 5 MWp – 50 km North of Leeds