Ørsted to buy Brookfield Renewable's Irish and UK onshore wind ops

Denmark's Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) said today it is entering the European onshore renewables market with the acquisition of the onshore wind business of Brookfield Renewable Partners LP (NYSE:BEP) in Ireland and the UK.

The Danish energy company will buy a 100% equity stake in Brookfield Renewable Ireland (BRI), based on an enterprise valuation of EUR 571 million (USD 684m) as at end-2020.

BRI owns 389 MW in operation and under construction, 149 MW in advanced development, and a development pipeline of more than 1 GW in Ireland and the UK, Ørsted said.

Ørsted moved into onshore renewables in 2018, focusing on the US, where it has built a portfolio of 4 GW of wind and solar in operation and in construction.

"The European market for onshore wind power is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, and with the acquisition of BRI, we get a strong platform that expands our presence in onshore renewables to Europe," said Ørsted group president and chief executive Mads Nipper.

According to Declan Flanagan, head of Ørsted's onshore business unit, the Irish and UK onshore markets offer attractive fundamentals, projects at scale, and value creation via a mixture of development projects and repowering opportunities. Flanagan added that the company can also take advantage of the BRI team's skills in trading and corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs).

The deal is expected to close in the current quarter.

In the summer of 2020, it was reported that Brookfield Renewable plans to start looking for a potential buyer for its Irish wind farm business.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.197)

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