Norwegian power group Statkraft has bought UK onshore developer Airvolution Clean Energy to underpin its target of a 1.2GW portfolio in the country by 2025.
Airvolution is a long-term partner of Statkraft and has been working with the Norwegian company since 2017 to secure project opportunities in Scotland.
Statkraft said bringing Airvolution in house “is in line with Statkraft’s recently stated ambitions to deploy 600MW of onshore wind and solar generation in the UK by 2025, with a further 600MW in development”.
The move comes despite negative UK policy moves towards onshore wind that have created planning barriers in England and excluded the generation source from the national renewable energy auction mechanism – the latter currently the subject of a legal challenge by another developer.
Richard Mardon, CEO of Airvolution, said: “This acquisition is a clear and powerful endorsement of our strong performance over the past two years. The UK policy changes of 2015 resulted in great uncertainty in the sector, and I’m proud that with an enormous amount of hard work and determination we have been able to adapt and continue to deliver quality projects.”
Statkraft said Airvolution’s Glasgow office will double in size after the acquisition, terms of which were not disclosed.