Image: © Ian Dyball/Stock.adobe.com
The Irish offshore wind projects included in the deal between Statkraft and fund manager CIP are the North Irish Sea Array and the Bore Array.
Norway-headquartered renewable energy company Statkraft has said that it is doing a deal with a fund manager, which will acquire a 50pc stake in its offshore wind portfolio in Ireland.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) will become Statkraft’s partner as it works to deliver the projects currently in its Ireland offshore wind portfolio.
CIP’s focus is mostly on renewables. Financial terms of its deal with Statkraft have not been disclosed. The two bodies estimate that delivering on the pipeline of projects currently in Statkraft’s portfolio will require a total investment of more than €4bn by 2030.
These projects include the three phases of the North Irish Sea Array (NISA) and the Bore Array. The proposed location for NISA is off the coast of counties Dublin, Louth and Meath.
NISA was one of seven offshore renewable projects to be issued with a Maritime Area Consent by the Government in December 2022.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Sea is the proposed site for the Bore Array.
David Flood, head of offshore wind at Statkraft, said that the deal “marks a major development for Statkraft in Ireland”.
Flood added that he thought Ireland’s “wealth of renewable energy resources” was under-utilised, or “untapped”.
“The country’s maritime area makes it ideal for large-scale offshore wind energy production – energy we can deliver in partnership with CIP.”
The deal marks CIP’s entry into the Irish market. Nischal Agarwal, a partner at the firm, said that the partnership would hopefully enable “the provision of renewable power to Irish homes and businesses and contribute to reaching the government’s ambitious decarbonisation targets”.
Statkraft is no stranger to the Irish market, having first entered it in 2018. Since then it has overseen renewable energy projects across solar, battery, grid and onshore wind, as well as offshore wind.
The company is currently part of a group working to harness offshore energy in Norway. Its head of offshore wind in Norway, Gry J Aamodt, said that the projects in Ireland would position the company better for the development of two future projects in Norway.
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