Elgin has acquired the Blackhall Solar Farm, a late-stage 200MW solar project in County Meath, from Germany's GP Joule. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Elgin expects to invest approximately €200 million to develop and construct the site.

Elgin is a London-headquartered independent power producer majority owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners since March 2024, when CIP and Elgin's management invested around £250 million through CIP's flagship CI V fund, which targets more than £10 billion in size; Elgin holds a 15GW-plus development pipeline across the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. GP Joule is a Reußenköge, Germany-headquartered integrated renewable energy supplier founded in 2009, employing around 500 people, with estimated annual revenue of $154.7 million.

The structural driver is Ireland's upcoming Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction, which is prompting developers who secure planning consent and grid connection to sell late-stage projects to capitalised buyers positioning to bid, rather than carry projects through construction themselves. GP Joule had already secured planning consent and grid connection for Blackhall before selling it to Elgin.

The acquisition expands Elgin's Irish development pipeline and adds to the capacity it can bring to the RESS auction process. Elgin chief executive Dermot Kelleher said Blackhall "is one of the largest late-stage solar development opportunities in the Irish market and represents a significant addition to Elgin's Irish platform."

Elgin is separately finalising construction and energisation of about 150MW of solar projects in Ireland, part of a pipeline of more than 300MW currently being built across Ireland and the UK. The company has been transitioning from a pure development model toward becoming a fully integrated independent power producer since CIP took its majority stake.

For the sector, Blackhall shows international developers using Ireland's late-stage solar pipeline as a liquid asset class, selling planning-ready projects on to platforms with the balance sheet to build and bid them into support scheme auctions.

Source: renewablesnow.com / solarpowerportal.co.uk / rocketreach.co