SSE Renewables Awarded Onshore Wind Project, Ireland

SSE Renewables  (18 December 2019) announced yesterday (18 December 2019) that it is to further expand its onshore wind pipeline through the acquisition of a 29-turbine, shovel-ready consented wind farm development in Ireland with an installed capacity in excess of 100MW, subject to final turbine selection.

SSE Renewables has acquired the Yellow River Wind Farm project outside Rhode in County Offaly from Green Wind Energy (Wexford) Ltd. The project was granted full planning consent in 2014.

On-site pre-construction works have already commenced, and SSE Renewables expects to begin full construction of the wind farm in late 2020 with an expected project completion date in 2022. The project is expected to support up to 80 full-time construction jobs at peak delivery.

Once completed, the windfarm will be capable of generating enough green energy to power over 50,000 homes annually and offset over 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over its expected 25-year lifetime, helping contribute to Ireland’s new 70% renewable energy target by 2030.

Paul Cooley, Director of Capital Projects at SSE Renewables, said: “Ireland has always been a core market for SSE Renewables, where we are already the largest owner, operator and developer of renewable energy. The acquisition of this large-scale, shovel-ready construction project further reinforces that position at a time when there is a renewed drive by Government to support the delivery of new renewable energy to meet the country’s 2030 climate action targets.

“This acquisition, and the pursuit of future acquisitions, is in line with SSE Renewables’ objective of continually exploring opportunities to grow our onshore wind development pipeline in Ireland and Great Britain. Yellow River Wind Farm will contribute towards our ambition of developing and building enough renewable energy capacity to treble annual output of renewable electricity to 30TWh by 2030.

“As we prepare for construction from late 2020, our focus is now on building strong and meaningful relationships within the local community in which Yellow River Wind Farm is hosted. As a responsible developer and operator, we are looking forward to working closely with the community in Rhode and North Offaly to fully realise the benefits of this exciting project.”

SSE Renewables is the largest renewable energy developer, operator and owner in Ireland’s all-island Integrated Single Electricity Market. The company owns and operates 708MW of onshore wind capacity across the island with a pipeline of around 600MW of new onshore wind farms under development.

SSE Renewables is also the leading developer of offshore wind energy project in Irish waters. The company is actively developing Phase 2 of Arklow Bank Wind Park off County Wicklow which can generate up to 800MW and is also in the early stages of work on two new projects, the 800MW Braymore Point off the north-east and 800MW Celtic Sea array off the south-east.