Elgin is to invest €200 million in Blackhall Solar Farm in County Meath, a project bought from the Irish arm of Germany's GP Joule, a deal that boosts the capacity Elgin can bid with at the next Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction, due to open at the end of October. Blackhall already holds planning consents and grid connection agreements and will be capable of generating up to 200MW once built.

Elgin is a Dublin-headquartered solar and battery storage developer founded in 2009, employing 130 people across Dublin, London and Rome, with projects across Ireland, Britain and Italy capable of generating 10,000MW once completed. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners took a majority stake in the company in 2024.

GP Joule is a German renewable energy developer whose Irish arm took Blackhall through its early development stages before the sale.

Chief executive Dermot Kelleher described Blackhall as one of the biggest solar projects in the Republic at that stage of development and called it a significant addition to Elgin's Irish projects, adding that projects like Blackhall will play an important role in supporting Ireland's decarbonisation ambitions, energy security and long-term economic growth. GP Joule managing director Ciaran Donnelly said the sale was an important milestone, noting the business had taken Blackhall from early stage to its current position.

Blackhall's timing is deliberate: RESS 6 will be the first auction to introduce separate solar and wind pots and new EU Net-Zero Industry Act non-price criteria, with the solar capacity factor held at 11% after industry lobbying, giving developers clearer bidding conditions than in prior rounds.

Ready-to-build capacity matters more under those conditions, since bidders with secured planning and grid connections can bid more competitively than those still carrying development risk, a gap Elgin's acquisition-led approach is designed to exploit.

For the sector, buying ready-to-build assets rather than developing from scratch is becoming a standard route to auction-ready capacity, letting funded platforms scale faster than organic development timelines allow.

Source: The Irish Times / Solar Ireland