Lenders technical advice on phase 2 of Oweninny Wind Farm

Everoze advises the European Investment Bank, BNP Paribas and AIB on the €135m project financing for Phase 2 of the Oweninny Wind Farm in North County Mayo, Ireland

Published September 2021

Congratulations to ESB and Bord na Móna for achieving financial close on Phase 2 of the Oweninny wind farm. The 83 MW North Mayo project represents an overall investment of €150 million, financed by a consortium of banks including AIB, BNP Paribas and the European Investment Bank. Everoze was pleased to support the lenders in a continuation of our role for the 89 MW Oweninny Phase 1.

Located between Crossmolina and Bangor Erris, the project adjoins both Ireland’s first commercial wind farm, Bord na Móna’s Bellacorrick wind farm commissioned in 1992, and the 89 MW Oweninny Phase 1 wind farm commissioned in 2019. The project continues a tradition of electricity generation at the site, formally used for peat harvesting and fuel for the Bellacorrick peat fired power station.

The project will comprise 31 Nordex turbines and civil works are already well progressed.

Everoze acted as lenders technical advisor in a continuation of our role for the original Oweninny Phase 1 project where we supported the lenders during the financing, construction and operations phases.

Peter O’Hagan, Oweninny Project Director, ESB said: “It was great to work with Everoze again for Phase 2 of Oweninny and build on the relationships and knowledge from working closely together on Phase 1. Reaching Financial Close was a major milestone for the project and the team found the support Everoze gave both us and the lenders was invaluable. The ease of approach, experience and pragmatism was evident throughout the process and as Everoze will provide ongoing support through the construction phase, we really consider them to be a key Project Partner. In particular I’d like to thank Joss, Ellie, Simon and Alex for their efforts.

A key change from Phase 1 was the use of LiveDiligence. Phase 2 was delivered using this platform and we found it a welcome addition. The live updates allowed the team to view the latest position on every aspect of the diligence report providing clarity for all correspondents, making the process easier to manage, reducing calls and email traffic and ultimately reducing stress on all sides. The review filters made it easy to spot the issues to focus attention on earlier in the process and thus avoided last minute surprises. The dream would be to get the legal and technical due diligence delivered with one integrated tool like LiveDiligence, this will have to be for future Oweninny’s.”