Renewable energy company Ørsted said it has taken its final investment decision (FID) on phase one of Garreenleen Solar Farm in Co Carlow, which marks its first solar investment in Ireland.
Located 15km outside of Carlow town, the 81 MW solar development is expected to be operational by 2026 and will bring Ørsted's operational capacity on the island of Ireland to almost 500 MW.
The move follows the project's win under the Government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 3 (RESS 3) auction in September, which saw Ørsted win approval for two projects (wind and solar) totalling 124 MW clearing.
Kieran White, Senior Vice President of Onshore in Region Europe at Ørsted, said that solar energy is an essential component for enabling the Irish power system to run entirely on green energy.
Mr White said that while the Garreenleen Solar Farm will be the company's first solar project in Ireland, its strong pipeline of other projects gives it the confidence that more will follow.
"Garreenleen is an attractive solar project because it has a short grid route to a strong meshed node in the existing national electricity network, in an area of the grid where constraints are forecast to be low," he said.
"With this investment decision, the project will also install the necessary grid infrastructure to facilitate the connection of a second phase of the project, which we hope to commit to within the next year," he concluded.
