Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT), part of British utility Octopus Energy, has completed the purchase of a newly built 42 MW solar farm near Dublin in Ireland.
Together with four nearby operational solar farms that ORIT acquired earlier this year, the company’s solar complex has a total capacity of 241 MW. ORIT claims its five-site solar complex is the largest in Ireland and will achieve approximately 2.5% of Ireland’s national solar target of 8 GW by 2030.
Once the sites were fully operational, they were acquired from Statkraft Ireland Limited, who developed and built the solar power plants under ORIT’s supervision. ORIT paid approximately €38 million (£31 million) for the 42MW site, and the total acquisition cost for all five was £165 million.
This was partly financed using the £87 million 20-year debt facility from Allied Irish Banks and La Banque Postale. Following the acquisition, ORIT says its total operational renewable energy capacity will be 802 MW.
Phil Austin, Chairman of ORIT, said: “We are pleased to have completed the fifth solar site following its activation, which underlines our continued commitment to increasing green electricity generation through renewable infrastructure projects.
“This solar complex will play a critical role in providing sustainable electricity to Ireland to help the country achieve its clean energy goals and represents a step forward in our mission to deliver long-term value for our shareholders and positive impact on the environment.”
ORIT previously announced that the location will benefit from a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft. The PPA guarantees revenue for ORIT and is part of Microsoft’s efforts to support the decarbonisation of Ireland’s electricity grid.
In November 2022, Microsoft announced 900 MW of renewable energy CPPAs in Ireland, of which more than 216 MW of onshore wind and solar are commercially operational, with a further 250 MW coming online by the end of this year.
The tech giant has a vested interest in the state of Ireland’s network, as the country is a global hotspot for data center developments. As reported on our sister site, Current±This is evident from figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Ireland in 2023, data centers accounted for 21% of total measured electricity consumptionmore than the total amount for urban housing (18%) and for rural housing (10%).
Interest in Ireland as a future technology hub is a crucial part of foreign and private investment in the country, and renewables must meet the resulting high energy demand. For companies like Microsoft, this is particularly important: the company will exceed its 2030 sustainability goals due to the energy needs of developing its businesses. AI technologies that use data centers.
