Denmark's Ørsted buys 389 MW Irish/UK onshore wind business

Ørsted has bought Brookfield Renewable's Ireland and UK onshore wind business for Eur571 million ($684 million), the Danish energy company said in a stock exchange statement April 16.

Brookfield Renewable Ireland, headquartered in Cork, has 389 MW of wind capacity in operation and under construction, 149 MW in advanced development and more than 1 GW of development pipeline in Ireland and the UK.

"The Irish and UK onshore markets offer attractive fundamentals, projects at scale, and value creation through a mix of development projects and repowering opportunities," said Declan Flanagan, CEO of Ørsted's onshore business unit.

The transaction is expected to close by Q2 2021. BRI's management team would continue to run the business, which would be integrated with Ørsted's over time.

The price looked attractive, Royal Bank of Canada analyst John Musk said, "implying only Eur1.5 million/MW for the operating assets (with the pipeline for free), versus multiples of Eur2 million/MW that we have witnessed for other operating onshore assets in Ireland under the REFIT [renewable energy feed-in tariff support] scheme."

BRI's operating portfolio in Ireland, however, was relatively old at around 10 years average age "and hence has utilised the majority of the 15-year REFIT period," Musk said.

Ørsted entered the onshore renewables business in 2018 with an initial focus on the US, where it has an operating and in construction portfolio of 4 GW of onshore wind and solar.