The company in this regard has appointed IBI Corporate Finance and Capricon as joint financial advisors. To meet its goals, it is also contemplating several options, including the sale of partial or all of its existing wind assets.
To identify the best partnership/ joint venture models, Coillte along with its financial advisers is inviting parties to participate in the development of wind, solar and other renewable energy projects in a competitive process.
The competitive process will be followed by tender process next year. In this process, it will evaluate the value of its existing and operating wind portfolio.
Coillte CEO Fergal Leamy said: “Our renewable energy business has exceptional potential and we need to make the right decisions to maximise that potential. We are evaluating a range of options in this regard to determine the most value enhancing and strategically attractive business model.
“Coillte’s extensive land bank has enabled the company to develop a pipeline of 25 projects exceeding 1GW and the profile of these projects demonstrates significant diversity in terms of geographic split, size and wind resource.
“To put the scale of our ambition into context, 1GW would represent approx. 33% of Ireland’s current renewable energy production, providing enough power to fuel up to a million households annually and shows our commitment to sustainability and making a significant contribution to delivering Ireland’s renewable energy targets”
Coillte is a partner to SSE in the development of the 169MW Galway Wind Park, which is expected to start commercial operations later this year.
In July, the two companies opened a community consultation on the proposed structure of the Galway Wind Park Community Fund.
The wind farm is expected to generate enough green energy to power around 90,000 homes.
Image: Coillte looking for partners to develop 1GW renewable projects. Photo: Courtesy of Coillte.
