Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has signed an agreement to acquire a majority share in Elgin Energy and will, together with Elgin’s retained management team, invest £250m into the Irish solar developer.
The Danish investment firm said the deal will combine CIP’s industrial approach for procurement and construction with Elgin’s high quality development portfolio to enable Elgin to become an Independent Power Producer, grow its team and pipeline in existing and new markets, and develop into a fully integrated and full-service solar and storage company.
To date, Elgin has delivered close to 2GW of ready-to-build solar and storage projects and, in recent years, it was successful in the UK and Ireland government-backed auctions on more than 30 projects.
Its current project pipeline of 15GW is supported by development activities in the UK, Irish, and Australian markets, covering stand-alone solar, solar co-located with battery storage, and stand-alone battery storage.
“Elgin is a perfect fit for CIP’s investment strategy given its strong leadership and culture, market leading development expertise, high quality pipeline of scale and significant growth potential in markets with attractive fundamentals,” said partner in the CIP Flagship investment team Nischal Agarwal.
“We are well placed to support Elgin in transforming into an IPP with our expertise in procurement and construction.”
Elgin chief executive Ronan Kilduff added: “We are thrilled to embark on this transformative journey with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
“This strategic partnership reinforces our financial strength while aligning with our vision to become the leading European solar company.
“Given CIP’s industrial background and approach, they are an ideal partner for Elgin in its next phase of growth and transformation into an IPP.
With CIP’s support, we are well-positioned to achieve our ambitious goals, including our commitment to create over 100 new jobs at Elgin, and accelerate towards a net zero future.”
With a target size of €12bn, CIP’s fifth flagship fund, CI V, is set to become the largest of its kind globally. The fund aims to invest in a range of technologies from wind and solar PV to energy storage across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.