Irish renewables firm Amarenco has partnered with Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of Prudential company M&G Investments, to develop utility-scale renewables in the UK, Ireland and France.

The deal will see the launch of a new platform – Amarenco Infracapital Renewable Investments – which is expected to investment in up to 100MW of renewables projects each year whilst also sourcing third-party development deals.

Infracapital has invested in an initial portfolio of three France-based solar projects with a total generating capacity of 75MW, all of which are backed by 20-year feed-in tariffs.

John Mullins, chief exec at Amarenco, said the deal would allow Amarenco to development a “significant pipeline” of assets it has in place.

“Furthermore, with the financial support, sector experience and credibility of Infracapital, we can now move forward and pursue significant further renewable opportunities of scale in multiple markets,” Mullins added.

Mullins hinted at the deal while speaking at this week’s Solar Finance & Investment Europe event in London, and also discussed the geographic regions Amarenco would be targeting. He said that “drawing a line between Bordeaux and Marseille” would reveal his area of interest to the south of the country towards its border with Spain.

Amarenco also has the nascent Irish solar market firmly in its crosshairs and is one of a number of developers waiting for further details regarding the proposed Contracts for Difference-styled auction scheme for utility-scale solar support.

Earlier this week both Mullins and BNRG chief David Maguire agreed that it was now more likely that an official announcement would be forthcoming in Q2 2017, with the first tranche of projects to complete before the end of 2018.