Perigus Energy's 81MW Garreenleen solar farm in Co. Carlow has reached full commercial operation, generating electricity equivalent to powering approximately 29,000 homes and bringing Perigus Energy's island of Ireland operational capacity from 373MW to 454MW and its Europe-wide capacity to 668MW across Ireland, the UK, Germany and Spain.

Perigus Energy is a Cork-headquartered European onshore renewables company formed following Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' acquisition of Ørsted's European onshore business through its CI V fund, completed in April 2026. It operates with a combined operational and under-construction capacity of 826MW and a multi-gigawatt development pipeline, employing over 200 people. Perigus has operated in Ireland since 1997, when it opened the Owenreagh wind farm in Co. Tyrone under the Ørsted brand.

Garreenleen is Perigus Energy's first Irish solar project, awarded a RESS 3 contract in October 2023 and constructed between June 2024 and August 2026, a 26-month development-to-commissioning cycle that managing director TJ Hunter describes as demonstrating the speed achievable in onshore renewables delivery. A community benefit fund of approximately €240,000 per year is now open for applications, and a tenth of the 160-hectare site has been ringfenced for biodiversity enhancement with 1.2 kilometres of native hedgerows planted.

The structural driver is Ireland's accelerating solar deployment under the RESS auction framework. Ireland historically relied almost entirely on wind for renewable electricity generation; solar has been the fastest-growing grid addition since RESS 1 provided a viable support mechanism from 2020.

Garreenleen's 81MW output represents a meaningful single-project addition to Ireland's installed renewable capacity in a grid where each new solar farm brings scheduling managers closer to managing high midday solar output against a wind-dominated baseload profile. The RESS 3 contract provides revenue certainty that makes the project bankable alongside an EirGrid grid connection that required co-ordinated commissioning with the transmission operator.

The Garreenleen commissioning is also the first visible output of the CIP-Perigus strategy since the April 2026 acquisition. The 740MW One Earth solar farm approved in the UK and the 170MW Cappakeel solar farm in Laois with consent established demonstrate the scale of Perigus's pipeline ambition; Garreenleen is the proof that delivery capability matches it.

Source: carlow-nationalist.ei / irishexaminer.com / energyglobal.com / perigusenergy.ie