Mainstream Renewable Power has secured a €60m corporate finance facility from Australia-based Macquarie to aid in its portfolio expansion programme.
The company will first receive €40m and a further €20m at a future date upon satisfaction of certain conditions and approvals.
The Irish firm has also raised an additional €16.8m to further develop its business including the Energy Bridge project which would export 5,000MW of wind power to the UK from Ireland, beginning in 2017.
Recently, Mainstream has submitted a planning application for Scotland’s 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm.
In addition, the company is constructing two mega-scale offshore wind farms in England and Germany.
Mainstream has also unveiled plans to build wind and solar plants with combined capacity of 325MW across Ireland, Canada, Chile and South Africa in 2012.
Commenting on the deal, Mainstream chief executive, Eddie O’Connor, said Macquarie’s investment shows the confidence they have in Mainstream’s future growth.
"After going through our initial development stage, Mainstream is now embarking on a very strong growth trajectory," O’Connor added.
"We have a team of over 150 specialised staff actively developing more than 50 large-scale wind and solar projects across four continents.
"We have started construction on over 325MW of wind and solar projects in four countries and this investment means we will be bringing more projects into construction as well as expanding our global project development portfolio."
Macquarie Group Europe, Middle East and Africa chief executive, David Fass, said: "This transaction continues Macquarie’s strong track record across the renewable energy sector as an investor, adviser, developer, operator and financier."
Image: Mainstream Renewable Energy is raising equity for renewable projects, including wind farms. Photo: courtesy of Neptuul.
