A joint venture of German outfit Ib Vogt, Irish company Highfield Energy and UK company Aura Power has reached financial close on a €160m project financing debt facility for two solar plants totalling 242MW in Ireland.
The lenders for the projects are Cooperatieve Rabobank, Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg and Norddeutsche Landesbank, providing one third of the senior debt each, consisting of a blend of KFW and commercial loans.
The projects are the 141MW Rosspile to be located on an 140-hectare site near the village of Foulksmills in County Wexford, and the 141MW Gillinstown plant to be located on a 123-hectare site near the village of Duleek, County Meath.
Both projects will utilize high-capacity bifacial modules on fixed-tilt support structures for optimised land use and efficiency.
Work on the grid connection infrastructure has already commenced and solar construction is expected to be completed in July 2022 for Rosspile and October 2022 for Gillinstown.
Ib Vogt has provided development funding and technical engineering support to Highfield Solar and will provide EPC and initial operation and maintenance services for the projects.
The projects were successful participants in Ireland’s first competitive Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 1) auction run by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in 2020.
The Highfield Solar JV was established in 2014.
Highfield Energy managing director Peter Kavanagh said: “We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone and we are now looking forward to completing both of these Solar PV projects. This is the result of years of planning and investment.
“The three partners have enjoyed a very positive relationship and combined their resources, capabilities, experience and knowledge to create these first class projects.
“As a company based in Ireland, we are hugely proud of our role in attracting such significant investment into the country for a renewable electricity generation project.
“It is also very important to us that the establishment of the associated community benefit funds will make significant contributions to the respective localities over the next decade and beyond.”
Ib Vogt managing director Anton Milner said: “The collaboration with our joint venture partners Highfield Energy and Aura Power has been outstanding and closing on these projects shows the dedication of all involved parties to bring clean energy to Ireland.
“Concluding the financing process would not have been possible without the conviction of our financing partners in renewable energy projects and their competence in funding them.”
Aura Power director Simon Coulson said: “It’s exciting to see these projects achieving this significant milestone after a lot of hard work from all involved.
“These two projects will deliver over 25% of the total RESS1 volume awarded to solar PV and will hopefully pave the way for many more solar PV transactions in the Irish market.”