NTR, which invests in and manages infrastructure assets, says it has added a further 64 MW to its onshore wind portfolio with the acquisition of three projects – two in Scotland and one in Ireland – bringing the total amount of assets under management for its NTR Wind 1 Fund up to 142 MW.
According to NTR, capital costs for the three projects are over EUR 150 million.
“The fund is ahead of target and currently owns 70 MW in Great Britain and 72 MW in the Irish single electricity market, putting us in a strong position to assess opportunities for our second sustainable infrastructure fund for next year,” said NTR’s CEO, Rosheen McGuckian.
The company says the assets acquired include two projects under construction – one in County Kerry, Ireland (17.5 MW), and one in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (35 MW) (Airies) – in addition to an 11.5 MW operational project (Ardoch and Over Enoch), in East Renfrewshire, Scotland.
NTR says the vendor of the two Scottish projects is Velocita Energy Developments, who, through 2020 Renewables, will manage the construction of Airies on NTR’s behalf. Element Power, the vendor of the Kerry project, will manage the construction and long-term asset management of the project on NTR’s behalf.
NTR’s chief investment officer, Manus O’Donnell, commented, “We remain positive about the fundamentals for the U.K. and Irish renewables markets for the investment period of this fund despite recent regulatory changes for onshore wind in the U.K. Our approach is to acquire midsize projects typically between 10 MW and 40 MW in size, and we continue to see a sufficient pipeline of quality assets to complete our target of EUR 250 million of equity investments between now and 2017.”
The company expects the Airies project, which comprises 14 GE 2.85 MW 103 turbines, to be commissioned at the end of this year and the project in Kerry, comprising seven Nordex N90 2.5 MW turbines, to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2017. The Ardoch and Over Enoch project, comprising five Siemens 2.3 MW turbines, has been in operation since 2014.
NTR Wind 1 Fund was launched by NTR plc to invest in onshore wind projects in Ireland and the U.K. The fund’s expected total equity and project finance capital requirement amounts to approximately EUR 670 million.
