Greencoat Renewables acquires Finnish wind farm for €60m

Renewable infrastructure company eyes up further opportunities in Nordic region

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish renewable infrastructure company, said on Monday it is to acquire a wind farm in Finland for about €60 million.

Greencoat will acquire the 43.2MW Kokkoneva wind farm from Abo wind, a global renewable energy project developer. The wind farm is currently under construction in Siikalatva, Finland, with commencement of commercial operations expected in the second quarter of 2022. The transaction is structured under a forward sale model and will only complete once Kokkoneva is fully operational.

Paul O'Donnell, partner at Greencoat Capital, the investment manager, said the Nordics is a very attractive target for renewable energy investment, given the combination of low-cost renewable energy and a well-developed corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) market.

“As the renewable generation market continues to develop, we expect to see greater opportunity in forward-sale and corporate PPA models and believe Greencoat Renewables is well positioned to benefit both in Europe and in Ireland,” he said, adding that the company has “ sight” of further value-accretive opportunities in Finland and the rest of the Nordic region.

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Kokkoneva is a subsidy-free wind farm and has entered a 10-year fixed-price corporate PPA with Gasum, Finland’s state-owned gas utility for the majority of the electricity generated.

The deal follows the acquisition by Greencoat of a portfolio of three French wind farms in summer 2020.

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan is a writer specialising in personal finance and is the Home & Design Editor of The Irish Times