Vendor’s technical due diligence

Portfolio of 14 wind farms totalling around 230 MW

Customer
Gaelectric
  
Founded in 2004, Gaelectric has become a leading independent developer and operator of renewable energy projects in wind, bioenergy and solar on the island of Ireland and in Great Britain. Gaelectric has 174 MW of wind generation connected to the grid. This will grow to over 400 MW of wind energy by 2017 and up to 1,000 MW of renewable generation across wind, solar, bioenergy and generation using compressed air energy storage by 2020.

Background
Having acquired three UK wind farms in 2014 totalling 73 MW, CGN Europe Energy are further broadening their renewables operations within the European market, by purchasing this portfolio of wind assets in Ireland from Gaelectric.

Project
Vendor's technical due diligence of 14 wind farms, totalling around 230 MW. The assets comprise ten existing wind farms of around 184 MW and a further four wind farms, which are expected to generate around 46 MW and to be fully operational by summer 2017. The portfolio consists of seven locations in Northern Ireland and seven in the Republic of Ireland.

Services
The work undertaken in this project report included the assessment of construction and operational contracts as well as performance, the power purchase agreement, grid connection agreement, planning application and consent documentation, equipment technology, energy production assessment and financial model technical inputs. Where appropriate, mitigation measures have been proposed to ensure that safe and profitable outcomes are achieved.

Benefits
Impartial third-party confirmation of the energy production assessment and technical capabilities of the wind farms as well as providing comfort on any risks or future costs that the potential purchaser may be exposed to.