On 16 April Ørsted entered into an agreement with Brookfield Renewable, an owner and operator of renewable power assets, to acquire a 100 % equity interest in its existing Ireland and UK onshore wind business, Brookfield Renewable Ireland (BRI). The agreement is based on an enterprise valuation of BRI of € 571 million as of 31 December 2020. The final price will be subject to customary adjustments.
With the acquisition of BRI, Ørsted enters the European onshore market. BRI, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is a developer, owner, and operator of onshore wind farms. It has a portfolio of 389 MW in operation and under construction, 149 MW in advanced development, and a more than 1 GW development pipeline in Ireland and the UK.
Ørsted entered the onshore renewables business in 2018 with an initial focus on the USA. Today, Ørsted’s onshore business has reached a significant scale with an operating and in-construction portfolio of 4 GW of wind and solar and a strong pipeline of further projects in development. The growth over the past year ranks the business among the five largest US constructors in terms of onshore capacity additions since 2017. Building on the success of the US business, Ørsted has been evaluating opportunities to enter the onshore renewables business in Europe.
BRI’s existing management team will continue to run the business which will be integrated into Ørsted’s Onshore business unit over time. The transaction is expected to close by Q2 2021.
Linkedin
