BlackRock acquires two wind projects in Ireland

A fund managed by BlackRock Real Assets has completed the acquisition of a 100% interest in two Irish operational wind projects, the 17 MW Acres wind farm in Donegal and the 34 MW Barranafaddock wind farm in Waterford from GE Energy Financial Services. 

The two wind facilities, which feature GE 2.85-103 turbines, are in operation since mid-2015 and are supported by a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA). The wind farms were acquired in 2014 by GE after being developed by Element Power.

GE technology is in charge of the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) of the two wind farms through a long term agreement.

BlackRock has invested equity capital in more than 75 renewable power projects in recent years. To date, BlackRock Real Assets has a total invested portfolio of approximately 2 GW of generating capacity across wind and solar projects located in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, France and the UK.
 
Rory O’Connor, managing director and head of renewable power for Europe at BlackRock said:  

“We are very pleased to invest in the Acres and Barranafaddock wind projects on behalf of our clients. This transaction represents BlackRock’s continued focus on renewable power investments, where the firm has over US$2.5 billion of equity assets under management.”