The new projects will be located at Smulgedon, north east of Dungiven, and at Monnaboy, on Loughtermore Mountain.
Together the projects will produce 25 MW of wind power and bring Gaelectric’s on shore portfolio with planning approvals on the island of Ireland to 130MW.
Gaelectric has commenced a significant build out programme to commission 150 MW of wind generation by 2016. Its project at Skrine in County Roscommon was commissioned in June 2011. Its Carn Hill project outside Belfast (13.8 MW) is currently under construction and will be commissioned in Q1 2013.
Commenting on its most recent planning approvals in Northern Ireland, Group CEO Brendan McGrath said: “We are delighted with the positive outcomes from the planning process in Northern Ireland which further de-risks our onshore portfolio in Ireland. We have now reached a stage of maturity in this end of our business where most of our projects are either at financial close, construction ready, or have consents in place, including firm grid offers.
"We are particularly pleased to be in position to offer our investors – current and future – a tangible renewable energy opportunity with clear visibility of projects and future opportunities," he continued. "This is very gratifying to our internal team that has been working diligently on delivering these projects, and to our backers.”
Gaelectric has appointed RBC Capital Markets as strategic investment advisers on the roll out its Irish onshore portfolio.
In addition to its onshore Ireland wind portfolio, Gaelectric has a significant US wind development business with a medium term pipeline of 510 MW of onshore generation with built transmission centered on the State of Montana by 2015, and a further longer term pipeline of 1,435 MW of generation capacity.
The Group is also progressing a grid scale strategic energy storage project utilising Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) technology near the Town of Larne in Co. Antrim.
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