One of Obton Energy's solar plants in Holland, Solcellepark Jlousberg. Image: Obton.
Danish solar PV business Obton has announced it is to double its investment in Irish solar partner Shannon Energy.
This brings its portfolio and pipeline of projects to a total value of €750 million (£649 million), with Obton also increasing its ambition to reach 1GW of capacity in Ireland by 2026.
Anders Marcus, CEO of Obton, said they were “delighted” by the expansion, which represented an enhanced commitment to the Irish market.
“Our partnership with Shannon Energy has successfully facilitated our investment in the Irish market and we look forward to continuing to expand the role of solar as part of the Irish government’s ambitious objective of having 70% renewable energy by 2030.”
The expansion comes after the two announced a joint venture in January 2020, and then announced their maiden investment, submitting 11 projects for the first round of Ireland’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auction in April 2020 with all bids awarded contracts. This saw an initial £52 million (€60 million) investment into solar in Ireland.
These 11 projects are located across eight counties, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Longford, Galway, Offaly, Meath and Tipperary. When constructed they are set to have a combined capacity of 11MW.
In June, construction will begin on the first of these projects, an 8MW solar park located in Clonmel, county Tipperary. It will include nearly twenty thousand solar panels, which will be connected to the national grid, with energisation scheduled for Christmas.
Noel Shannon, CEO of Shannon Energy, added that they were extremely happen with how the relationship had “flourished and grown over the last two years".
“We now have a team of specialists who are the boots on the ground from an Obton perspective. We are now focused on acquiring more early stage opportunities to build solar projects on suitable Irish farms in order to reach our target of 1GW in the coming years’’.