ENERGY COMPANY Energia is raising €48 million from a group of banks to help finance the expansion of its wind-energy operations.
Energia, part of the Viridian Group has negotiated a €48 million debt facility with Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Ireland and National Australia Bank.
It plans to use the money to finance the construction of wind farms with the capacity to generate a total of 53 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The company is planning to build new wind farms with a total capacity of 150MW, about enough electricity for 50,000 homes, throughout Ireland over the next two years.
Energia is planning to build the wind farms in Cork, Donegal, Tipperary and Tyrone.
It has already arranged finance to provide 50MW in the North, and intends providing up to 100MW in the South between now and 2012.
The company already owns 24MW and has agreements to buy 565MW of electricity from existing wind farm operators.
Peter Baillie, managing director of Energia’s renewables business, said the extra capacity combined with its power-purchase agreements, would give it about 25 per cent of renewable energy supply in the country by 2012. “Demand for renewable electricity is growing rapidly among Irish business and we have consistently increased our renewable portfolio to meet this need,” he added.
Energia supplies power to businesses, industry and large energy users. Viridian, which owns Huntstown Power, the operator of two gas-fired generating plants in north Co Dublin, is selling Northern Ireland Electricity which controls the region’s electricity transmission and distribution networks, to the ESB for €1.25 billion.
