Greencoat UK Wind buys Brockaghboy wind farm in NI

Greencoat UK Wind has acquired the Brockaghboy wind farm from ERG Power Generation for a total consideration of approximately £163m, it announced on Thursday.

The FTSE 250 company said Brockaghboy is located about 30 miles east of Derry in Northern Ireland, and has a capacity of 47.5MW.

Brockaghboy was originally developed by TCI Renewables, and constructed by ERG with support from TCI.

The wind farm was accredited to receive 0.9 ROCs per MWh from August last year, and was fully commissioned in February this year.

Greencoat said its forecast net load factor was 40.5%.

“We are very pleased with this latest acquisition,” said Greencoat UK Wind chairman Tim Ingram.

“2017 was a busy year for us and it is great to start 2018 with the acquisition of a 100% ownership stake in a brand new, good sized, very high load factor wind farm, from very experienced developers.”

Ingram said the secondary market remained “active”, and there were several wind farms that Greencoat now expected to be acquired by others in the near future.

“As with all our acquisitions, price discipline is paramount.”

The acquisition was funded by Greencoat UK Wind’s revolving credit facility of £100m, plus an increase in its term debt facility with Commonwealth Bank of Australia of £50m, as well as reinvestment of portfolio cash of approximately £13m.

It said the new tranche under the term debt facility had a term of seven years.

Following the acquisition, Greencoat’s total borrowings amounted to £415m, with £150m under the term debt facility and £265m under the revolving credit facility, equivalent to 27% of its gross asset value.