About

Kevin McCarthy is the chief legal officer for Ireland of Brookfield Renewable Energy Group. Brookfield Renewable is a large multinational renewable energy developer which owns and operates one of the world’s largest renewable power portfolios. It has a portfolio of 930 renewable power facilities in North America, South America, Europe, India and China with a combined installed capacity of 18,000 MegaWatts. McCarthy works closely with his internal legal, commercial and operational colleagues as well as various external advisers and consultants to manage the legal aspects of Brookfield’s existing Irish and European renewable energy operational portfolio (and future pipelines) as well as the associated trading business and regulations relating to same. Before his current role, McCarthy was a senior lawyer in the in-house team of Bord Gáis Éireann, before the energy business was privatised by the Irish Government. He recently helped to steer Brookfield Renewable through the multitude of changes to its operational portfolio and associated trading business brought about by the introduction of the integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM) – including changes to existing power purchase agreements (PPAs), the setup of a first of its kind trade facilitation agreement structure and other complex regulatory matters. He also recently led and managed one of the largest renewable energy project re-financings in the Irish market, involving the re-financing of three project finance portfolios for 19 operational windfarms. This was a highly complex and challenging project, and was delivered on time. A nominator highlights that, McCarthy ‘is technically excellent and seamlessly manages a very large commercial and technical team from Brookfield Renewables’ European headquarters in Cork. He is one of most respected general counsel in the Irish power market’.