Wedoany.com Report-Mar 15, A joint venture between Dublin-­based renewable energy firm BNRG and Impax Asset Management is selling a 43MW portfolio of solar farms that are under construction in Ireland.

The three solar farms are due to be commissioned over the ­summer.

The planned sale, first reported by industry publication PeakLoad, includes solar projects in Co Kildare and Co Cork.

The three solar farms are due to be commissioned over the ­summer. They secured 15-year subsidies in 2022 under the government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme.

The joint venture has engaged financial adviser PwC to assist in finding a buyer for the projects.

PeakLoad noted that Impax and BNRG reached financial close on the assets they are selling in early 2024, with a debt facility provided by Societe Generale.

The sale will follow the disposal of three solar projects in Maine by BNRG that were completed in October and November last year. It has a number of other operating solar farms in the US state, as well as in Oregon.

BNRG was founded by chief executive David Maguire in 2007. Since then, it has worked with partners to develop solar farms that now generate more than 150,000 MWh of electricity. It has more than 5.5 gigawatts of solar energy projects in development.

The US is its single biggest target market, where it anticipates having 995MW of installed solar power across 22 projects installed by 2028. In the UK, it is targeting a total of 443MW across five projects and in Ireland, 313MW over nine sites. It is also progressing a number of projects in Australia.

In 2023, the latest year for which BNRG accounts are publicly available, the company generated revenue of €8.5m and made an operating loss of just over €7m. That compared with €5.3m and €4.6m respectively in 2022. It had retained earnings of €16.2m at the end of 2023.

In 2022, BNRG secured an €8.5m investment from AIB. The money was targeted by the renewables firm towards the continued development of its project pipeline. There are a number of large-scale solar projects under development in Ireland, as well as a significant number that are already in operation.

About 75pc of the electricity generated from solar farms is delivered between May and September. Solar power provided almost 4.4pc of Ireland’s energy demands in June last year, while 25.3pc came from wind farms.

Ireland has a target of generating 80pc of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2030.