The nine solar projects with a combined capacity of 320MW will be an addition to the company’s portfolio
Image: Kevin O’Donovan (at left), Managing Director of Statkraft Ireland, and Simon Coveney, Ireland's Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Photo: courtesy of Statkraft.
Statkraft Ireland, a subsidiary of Statkraft, has acquired nine solar projects with a combined capacity of 320MW from JBM Solar in Ireland.
The acquisition of the solar projects will be an addition to the company’s portfolio that has an existing onshore wind capacity of 1.25GW along with 500MW of offshore wind.
Statkraft stated that the deal will allow the company to help the country achieve its targets set in the Climate Action Plan that was published in June 2019.
The solar projects included in the acquisition are in the advanced stages of development and some of them will participate in the upcoming Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions.
The acquisition is part of its Statkraft’s commitment to capital spend of €1.5bn ($1.6bn) in the Irish renewable energy generation sector.
Statkraft aims to achieve 2GW of solar and 6GW of wind power capacity by 2025
Statkraft Ireland managing director Kevin O’Donovan said: “We believe that Ireland will need contributions from all forms of renewable energy to meet 2030 binding targets of reaching 70% green energy.
“The acquisition of this 320MW of solar energy further diversifies our own portfolio and continues our upward growth trajectory.
“Each MW of these developments will be necessary if we are going to be successful in tackling climate change.
“ Work carried out to date has ensured that the Irish electricity grid system is operating successfully with renewable energy levels of up to 65% at any given time which proves that we are not that very far away from having a Grid system which can be run almost exclusively on renewable energy.”
Statkraft aims to achieve 2GW of solar and 6GWof wind power capacity by 2025 globally.
In September, the company acquired three wind projects in Chile with a total capacity of 110MW.
The wind projects include the 30MW Cardonal, the 28MW Manantiales, and the 52MW Cerrillos, which are located in the Litueche, in the Region of the General Liberator Bernardo O’Higgins.