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The semi-state company, which owns and manages 445,000ha of land, nearly 7% of the total land area of Ireland, is looking for a partner to develop over €1bn of wind farms across Ireland.
This comes as the body announced one of its projects in Galway has become the largest wind farm in the country.
The company is also considering selling its existing windfarm portfolio to fund its share of future development.
As part of its renewable energy strategy, Coillte has set a target to develop in excess of one giga-watt (GW) of wind farms over the next 10 years.
It is estimated that this will cost in excess of €1bn and this is the reason Coillte wants to bring in a partner to co-develop the windfarms.
In order to fund its share of the development, it is looking at options which would maximise the value of its existing wind assets, including the potential sale of part or all of its existing wind assets to fund/co-fund new development opportunities.
Coillte sees itself as a windfarm developer, but does not have any interest in holding the assets in the long term
The company has appointed IBI Corporate Finance and Capricorn to look into the options.
Coillte chief executive Fergal Leamy says its renewable energy business has exceptional potential.
He says that Coillte’s extensive land bank has enabled the company to develop a pipeline of 25 projects exceeding 1GW – four times the power output from Coillte’s existing portfolio.
This (1GW) would represent around 33% of Ireland’s current renewable energy production. It would provide enough power to fuel up to one million households annually.
Coillte sees itself as a windfarm developer, but does not have any interest in holding the assets in the long term. However, it has stated that it does not intend to sell any land.
In it for the long haul
Coillte has been a supporter of wind energy since the earliest days of the sector in Ireland in the 1990s.
The majority of wind farms located on their lands are operated by third-party developers.
In more recent years, its strategy has been to lead the development process and also take responsibility for bringing wind farms into construction and operation. Coillte delivered profits (EBITDA) of €98.3m last year.
Cloost Valley
Meanwhile, a 169 mega-watt (MW) wind farm in the Cloosh Valley, Co Galway, has entered “commercial operation and is now Ireland’s largest and best-performing wind farm”.
The project is co-developed by SSE ad Coillte in Connemara.
The investment cost over €280m and the power generated at the site, which is called the Galway Wind Par, will be now provided to SSE’s retail arm SSE Airtricity.
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