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Ken Burke, Head of AIB Business Banking with Robin Borgert, ENERCON’s regional sales manager for Northern Europe. Photo: Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and ENERCON, a leading European wind turbine supplier, have signed a co-operation framework to help small wind farm developers to streamline their start up processes.

AIB and ENERCON took the initiative after noting that the legal and technical advisory fees associated with raising capital were disproportionately high for their smaller wind farm developers. ENERCON estimates small wind farm developers could save about €50,000 in transaction costs on a typical wind farm development as a result of the initiative.

AIB’s Head of Business Banking Ken Burke said Ireland, like every other country, is facing challenging CO2 emissions targets.

"Given our geographical position on the Western seaboard of Europe, we are well equipped with the natural resource – wind – to feed the national grid. The availability of capital for small and medium sized wind farm projects, especially the sub-10MW projects, has been constrained over the last five years partly due to the high transactional costs. By taking the time to standardise the documentation and removing duplication in the process, AIB and ENERCON have been able to cut due diligence costs.”

Mr Burke went on to say that projects with fewer than four turbines sometimes have a tough time getting finance and the due diligence fees can be disproportionately high.

"This challenge can lead to small developers selling to the larger players despite years of hard work getting planning permission and grid connection in place. Many small developers, such as farmers wishing to construct turbines on their own land, would like to develop and hold wind farms as investments for their future. This agreement between AIB and ENERCON will help reduce the costs for the smaller developer. We are championing the smaller wind farm developers by giving them a better chance of getting their projects off the ground."

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