Amarenco buys two French solar farms for €31m

The solar farms are located in the south of France, at Grabels and the Lagarde Vaucluse area. The former began operation in 2015 and the latter in 2018.

They have power purchase agreements running to 2035 and 2036 respectively.

“The sale has attracted interest from a number of financial investors and industry participants, demonstrating the strong appeal of the renewable assets developed and built by Neoen,” according to Neoen chief executive and chairman Xavier Barbaro.

The acquisitions by Amarenco, which is headquartered in Cork, has cement its already strong presence in France.

Late last year, Amarenco also agreed to buy a 50 megawatt (MW) solar farm in Spain was due to come on stream in January this year, while it also acquired 148MW of projects in Portugal.

The company has a total of 700MW of assets under construction or in operation in countries including Ireland. It has a total of five gigawatts of projects in development.

Last November, Amarenco secured €150m in backing from investors including pan-European asset manager Tikehau Capital to fund expansion. The fresh backing included a share capital increase and equity line.

It was also supported by the solar company’s founders and IDIA Capital Investissement.

In April last year, IDIA Capital Investissement and three private equity groups that are part of the Credit Agricole group, took a €15m stake in Amarenco.

In 2020, a joint venture Amarenco is involved in with a unit of French energy giant Total secured a €40m revolving credit line to expand its work on the deployment of solar panels on buildings.

Mr Mullins told the Irish Independent in an interview last year that he expects Amarenco to have 30 gigawatts of projects operational by 2030 and 50 gigawatts by 2050.

Mr Mullins said at the time that while France dominated Amarenco’s balance sheet, that would be reduced “significantly” in the near future. Iberia will be the company’s biggest market within 15 months, he said at the time.

Of the 3GW of projects Amarenco expects to have operational by 2023, the split is expected to be broadly equal between Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The company has operational hubs in Lagrave in France, Porto in Portugal, Vienna, Muscat in Oman, Singapore, Taipei, Bangkok, Hanoi and Tokyo.

Amarenco successfully pitched for 40MW of solar projects under the first Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) auction in Ireland last year.

The RESS guarantees renewable energy projects the price for the electricity they generate.