Pia van der Feltz and Ghislaine Schreinemachers of Rabobank International with Ian Thom, chief executive, Viridian Group, at the opening of the Crighshane and Church Hill wind farms in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Energy provider Energia and the Irish Infrastructure Fund (IIF) have opened two new wind farms in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with the aim of adding 50.6 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity.
The wind farms, developed by Energia Renewables, are in Crighshane and Church Hill in Co Tyrone.
According to Energia, which is part of Viridian Group, the wind farms represent a €74m investment. They are majority owned by the IIF, which was set by Irish Life Investment Managers and is managed by AMP Capital.
Ian Thom, the chief executive of Viridian Group, officially opened the wind farms last Thursday. The electricity generated by the two wind farms will be sold to business customers in Ireland by Energia.
According to Peter Baillie, managing director at Energia Renewables, the company invested €200m in the last two years in more than 100MW of wind farm developments.
“We are also supporting third-party wind-generator investments of €600m in more than 450MW of wind farms throughout Ireland through long-term off-take agreements,” he said.
Thom said Energia is contracting with more than 550MW of operational wind farms in Ireland, and the company has a further 290MW in development.
By 2013, he said this would total 840MW of contracted renewable power, representing around 25pc of the Irish renewable market.
