Bute Energy, Connections & Partners

This piece is in two parts. The first takes us to Ireland, the second . . . well, I’m not quite sure, maybe into a war zone.

For anyone new to the blog, or this topic, Bute Energy is a Scottish company with a Cardiff address planning a dozen or more windfarms in Wales, plus the pylon runs needed to connect them with the main grid. Also solar arrays and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

The head man is Oliver James Millican who, along with the other Bute principals, Stuart Allan George and Lawson Douglas Steele, left Millican’s father’s Parabola property company towards the end of 2017. They may still be working for Parabola.

IF YOU EVER GO ACROSS THE SEA TO IRELAND, THEN MAYBE . . .

To begin with, I recently learnt that Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Bute’s main funder up to this point, is now operating in Ireland. Taking advantage of Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has committed €200m to specialist greenfield renewable energy infrastructure investor, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (“CIP”) latest flagship strategy, Copenhagen Infrastructure V (the “CI V”)

When I saw ‘CI V’ it rang a bell, because this is (or was?) the CIP fund behind Bute Energy. Mentioned more than once on this blog. Specifically, CI V Dragon Lender Ltd (launched 23.12.2021). Other companies with the CI V Dragon name are; CI V Dragon Topco Ltd (16.03.2023), and CI C Dragon Holdco 2 Ltd (07.12.2023).

All three are still in business, with directors I believe to be working for CIP.

There was a fourth company, CI V Dragon Holdco Ltd, formed 23.12.2021, with CIP directors. Two of whom left in November 2023, but two hung on until June 2025, when they were replaced by Oliver Millican. A liquidator was appointed in January this year. This outfit was clearly replaced by Holdco 2.

A lot of money went into the now-departed company, over £60,000,000. Which seems to have been used in payouts to Bute directors. This has been widely covered in the media; including Nation.Cymru. There are suggestions of, dare I say it – can I even spell it! – jiggery-pokery.

Here’s what Google AI says. Nation.Cymru is quoted, but the info came from this site.

Though a reporter for a London newspaper, who’s been in contact recently over Bute’s activities, tells me his ‘paper’s bean counters are not convinced Bute’s done anything illegal. Devious, maybe, but not, strictly speaking, illegal.

Whatever the answer, it seems that the money was doled out thus: Millican £47.56m, with George and Steele each getting £4.64m, and a few million going to minor players, one said to be Millican’s brother-in-law.

Much of Millican’s money was used to buy real estate in Scotland, often warehouses, and dealt with in this blog in March. Here’s a quote I used then from a Bute insider:

The real estate arm of the Windward portfolio . . . is working with multiple overseas businesses and at least one national government to house interests and commodity items relating to renewables infrastructure. There are warehouses in Wales and Scotland filled to the rafters with BESS and pylon materials – rented and landed for resale exclusively to the UK market to artificially appear to restrict overseas procurement and brand it as available when supply chains pinch in the late 2027 to early 2029 drive.

Windward is another name used by Bute companies, Windward Enterprises Ltd being the ultimate holding company for the Bute empire. Sole director and shareholder Oliver Millican.

A new director of Windward Enterprises, since June 1, is given as ‘Thomas Anthony Watson’. (Companies House was notified June 25.) A name common enough to be ignored. He is in fact, Labour peer, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest.

Last month Windward Enterprises took out a loan with private bank Brown Shipley & Co Ltd, ultimately owned by the Al Thani family, which owns and runs Qatar. This family also owns some £40bn of real estate in London, including Selfridges, Harrods, The Savoy, Claridge’s, Heathrow Airport . . .

BUT WHY THE INTEREST IN IRELAND?

With Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners investing in ‘renewables’ in Ireland I naturally got to wondering if Bute Energy is similarly involved.

In an idle moment I typed ‘Bute Energy Ireland’ into Google, and it suggested a “corporate address” down by Anna Liffey. Here to be exact: 2nd Floor, Riverview House, 21-23 City Quay, Dublin, D02 AY91.

Which turns out to be the Dublin address of SYSTRA Ireland, part of a big French company, with projects around the world.

Next, I searched for ‘Bute Energy Systra’, and turned this up:

Bute Energy is a Welsh developer spearheading over £3 billion of onshore wind projects. They collaborate with global infrastructure and consulting firm SYSTRA. SYSTRA provides lifecycle services, electrical grid/infrastructure planning, and engineering for Bute’s energy parks to speed up the transition to a low-carbon grid.

Welsh developer“! So there is a link. But why had I never heard of SYSTRA before? Next, my trembling digits tapped in ‘Welsh Government Systra’, and this came up:

SYSTRA is a prominent transport and engineering consultancy that frequently partners with the Welsh Government and Transport for Wales (TfW) to modernize public transport, boost regional connectivity, and achieve net-zero climate targets.

Then I found this on the SYSTRA website. Nice to see another Welsh company getting contracts from the transition to the wonderful Green economy.

On the Systra website I also unearthed these specific projects. A franchised bus service for Wales and an energy from waste facility on Deeside. Are there others?

Despite these contracts in Wales SYSTRA doesn’t even bother with the Bute ploy of having an office here. It seems Wales is handled from Bristol or Birmingham. Though there is of course an office in Edinburgh, which will be handy for the Bute boys. (In fact, SYSTRA’s Edinburgh address looks somehow familiar.)

AI coming up with SYSTRA’s Dublin address for Bute Energy is no real surprise. It’s pretty obvious this French company has its feet under the table with the so-called ‘Welsh Government’.

So, Bute is already linked with SYSTRA and CIP, both are now operating in Ireland, with Systra also well in with the ‘Welsh Government’. It’s therefore reasonable to assume that Bute may also be active in Ireland.

Which brings me to another reason for looking at Irish connections. I’m referring to the pylon runs from windfarms planned in central Wales (many by Bute) to Llandyfaelog, south of Carmarthen, where they connect with the main grid running from RWE’s Pembroke power station to England.

This has been covered extensively, both my blog and on the CPRW website.

While England was always the presumed destination for the electricity generated, it could just as easily go west to Ireland, thanks to the new Greenlink Interconnector at Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire.

This short (2:12 mins) news clip from RTÉ explains it.

The demand for electricity in Ireland is soaring, with some 80 AI data centers already, and more in the pipeline. Understandably, the state electricity board, EirGrid, is getting nervous.

No surprise then, that in addition to the connection from Pembrokeshire there’s another from Bodelwyddan to somewhere near Dublin, with MaresConnect. This is owned jointly by Etchea Energy, with offices in London and Dublin, and our old friends in the Foresight Group.

UPDATE: Bodelwyddan is mentioned in this announcement of an offshore developmententirely in Welsh waters“, between BP and Japanese company Jera, with a “proposed connection to the Bodelwyddan National Grid substation“.

As for Foresight, you may remember this lot attracting bad publicity in recent years for buying up Welsh farms on which to make money from planting trees to offset ’emissions’, or some such corporate bollocks.

And then there are the governmental contacts. Here’s a joint statement issued a year ago after first minister Eluned Morgan visited Dublin to meet Tánaiste Simon Harris.

Forums have enabled us to hear directly from Irish companies including ESB, Simply Blue and DP Energy, who are investing in energy projects in Wales. During the 2023 forum, ministers also visited the Morlais tidal stream energy project on Anglesey in North Wales

Last month, the new Plaid first minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, was in Dublin.

And the links don’t end with politicos doing photo-ops. Here’s one between French giant EDF and Irish state-owned ESB. This offshore wind project’s called Gwynt Glas. The only thing Welsh about it is the name. (But that’ll be enough to please some.)

So Irish companies, with others from Scotland, England, and further afield, invest in renewable energy projects in Wales. A country that already produces more electricity than it could consume if we all drove electric Humvees and left our lights on 24/7.

But it doesn’t end there, because there’s also electricity being shipped down from Scotland. This was supposed to be taken by a lengthy pylon run from Pentir near Bangor to Swansea North, on the line from Pembroke to England.

Then again, it might not run down to Swansea at all; perhaps it – or some of it – could be sent to Ireland via the Bodelwyddan link. However you look at it, Wales is being covered in windfarms and other installations we don’t need, and criss-crossed with transmission routes going elsewhere.

Something noted by CPRW, which last month put out a press release warning that ‘Wales Must Not Become England’s Energy Corridor‘. Agreed. But I repeat, the way things are shaping up Wales is just as likely to become an energy corridor serving Ireland as well.

All the while those treacherous clowns in Corruption Bay mince around looking smug, and preparing their spare rooms for ‘refugees’ (or maybe not) – cos we is saving the planet, innit.

And anybody who objects is a climate-denying fascist. Well, I guess that’s me.

JUDGED BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

Another development concerning Bute worth reporting is the funding from Dutch outfit Rabobank. Here’s the Rabobank website.

There are maybe two points to make about Rabobank. First, it’s big in agriculture and food . . . and buying farmland. Second, it has a rather worrying record.

When it comes to buying farms and land Rabobank operates through the subsidiary Rabo Farm and local intermediaries. These are often corrupt local officials. Worth asking if these officials were always corrupt, or was it the prospect of Rabobank money that corrupted them?

Come to that, how did Rabobank make contact with local officials in remote parts of Poland and Roumania? Did they have intermediaries with good contacts? I mention that Latin outpost because of a scandal just over a decade ago that saw local farmers learning they no longer owned their land. Read about it by clicking on the image below.

Rabobank has strong links with top-tier Globalists the Rothschilds. Maybe the latter rely on Rabobank’s expertise in food supply and pricing to help them towards the Globalists’ wet-dream goal of controlling the food supply. And with it, us.

Rabobank is also believed to be active in that most corrupt of eastern European countries, Ukraine. But the law there states that only Ukrainian citizens and entities can own land. Up to 10,000 hectares.

What this means in practice is that those close to the Cokehead Clown of Kiev often act as intermediaries for foreign investors. This goes some way to explaining the Bugattis, Lamborghinis and Bentleys with Ukrainian plates in Monte Carlo.

Rather cruelly they’re known as the “Monaco Battalion“. Which must be a great consolation to Ukrainians dying at the front to defend their corruption.

But then, dying on the front line nowadays is reserved for little people.

But the question is, why is Bute Energy involved with Rabobank at all? The new funder may now be branching out into ‘renewables’, but the primary interest remains land, farming, and foodstuffs. Are the two connected?

By which I mean, is Rabobank’s link-up with Bute connected to Bute owning ‘Welsh’ Labour, also now buying influence in Plaid Cymru; and Rabobank realising that both these parties want to end livestock farming. Which will bring many farms onto the market.

A Powys farmer confided recently, regarding Rabobank:

From my perspective, the concern is that this extremely powerful financial institution with deep expertise in agricultural land are now also financing infrastructure that competes for that land.

Whatever the answer, Bute Energy linking up with a company with Rabobank’s record should set alarm bells ringing.

CONCLUSION

As I’ve said a few times in recent posts on the subject, I (and others) may have focused too much on Bute’s activities in Wales at the expense of the bigger picture. Which now seems to be emerging.

A picture that, first, confirms the electricity generated in Wales is for consumption somewhere else. I’d assumed that ‘somewhere else’ to be England. But that’s only part of the picture.

Electricity generated in Wales, and off our coasts, is also likely to be going to Ireland. This accounts for the interconnectors from Bodelwyddan and Freshwater West, and it might also explain the Irish companies investing here.

Will electricity generated by Irish companies in Wales be reserved for Irish consumers? I ask because while I appreciate there are interconnectors everywhere, and electricity can flow both ways, consumption in Ireland seems to be outpacing generating capacity.

Then there’s the power coming down from Scotland. It’s not for Welsh consumption. So why can’t it go directly to England and / or Ireland?

Do you remember Alexander Cordell’s book, Rape of the Fair Country, about the 19th century exploitation of Wales by Victorian industrialists? What we see today is the Globalist-Green rape of Wales . . . but without the jobs or any other tangible benefits.

It’s clear beyond doubt that Mam Cymru is being used, and abused. How much longer do we just stand by and let it happen?

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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40 Comments
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Liz

Stuart Alan George is a director of Green Generation Energy Networks Cymru Ltd…!! and they are involved with a whole load of stuff and I have posted a link as they have been in the high court recently and local farmers won…they are in league with Bute Energy

Eifion

It looks increasingly likely that Wales has been earmarked to be turned into a green energy power station for all of Europe. And with your investigative work, this rings true for me with your account.

Being that Pumsaint is to be essential for these wind turbine developers to reach the greatest prize of all, the Cambrian Mountains, then it is crystal clear that these developers are in it together.

We, at Pumsaint Hall Committee, have been entertained by Belltown Power on at least five occasions, to have us to allow them to transport their machines over village hall ground; and the recreation field that we lease off the National Trust. Foresight Group – which you mention in your blog – is the firm that finances a joint project of six, 760 ft high machines at above Llanddewi Brefi. But need our approval for this ‘yellow brick road’.

From the beginning of our encounter with BP/ FG, their representatives have always claimed that they work alone, and we could say no to other firms that will need the same road to carry their wares. They also make a great play of their developement at being only six turbines which are located in a forest. And that the transmission of power will be on wooden poles, to a nearby sub station.

However, by smelling a rat, and delaying things, this firm admit, by now, to be in negotiation with the others involved – which need the same access track! Bute Energy have a development of 55, 760ft high machines, with solar panels and battery boxes, on land next door. And firther on EDF have outlined plans of anothe 27 machines of the same ilk.

So these three ugly sisters of Foresight Group; Bute Energy and EDF, are working together to turn the Cambrian Mountains into a wreck of Wales…just for our politicians to claim that Wales is a green light to save the planet.

Wynne

You refer to them lying to the public Jac.

Copy below of a recent response from Bute Energy on Esgair Galed project admitting that the images on their website are not intended to be accurate. Correspondence is continuing on the subject. Awaiting further response from Bute Energy.

Dear

Thank you for your reply and clarification..
The image that you refer to forms part of the Bute Energy brand identity and is not intended to be an accurate representation of Esgair Galed Energy Park. Rather, it is designed to convey a sense of place and to help distinguish the project from our other energy parks.
Visualisations for Esgair Galed Energy Park have not yet been published. These will be prepared and made available as part of the project’s statutory consultation process, in accordance with relevant guidance and requirements. An example of the type of visualisations that will be produced can be viewed for Llyn Lort Energy Park here.

Kindest regards.
Esgair Galed Energy Park Project Team

Wynne

I responded to Bute Energy with letter below. Awaiting reply.

Esgair Galed Energy Park Project Team
Bute Energy
Hodge House
Guildhall Place
Cardiff
CF10 1DY

My Ref: NCC/WJ/278
Your Ref:    
Date: 30 June 2026

Dear Project Team 

Subject: Esgair Galed Proposed Energy Park – Visualisation presented on Bute Energy website  

Thank you for clarifying the position. In view of your observations I would be grateful if you could consider the following course of action.

  1. Replace the image presented in the “overview” section of your website with one of the visualisations prepared in accordance with the guidance document approved by PEDW when these visualisations are available, and
  2. Publish a “disclaimer notice” on your website confirming that the image in the overview section forms part of the Bute Energy brand identity and is not intended to be an accurate representation of Esgair Galed Energy Park.

The action is considered necessary to avoid giving the general public misleading information regarding your proposals. Thank you. 

Kind regards

Wynne

Just received their reply by email a few minutes ago. Copy below.

Dear

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We will continue to keep our website updated with the latest relevant project information as the project progresses. We appreciate your feedback and will consider it as we refine and develop our plans.

As requested, we have added a disclaimer to the website explaining that the graphic elements are part of Bute Energy’s visual brand identity to help create a sense of place and distinguish it from other projects.

Kindest regards.
Esgair Galed Energy Park Project Team

Wynne

This is the actual disclaimer now published on the Esgair Galed website.

“The graphic elements associated with this project is part of its visual brand identity and has been designed to help create a sense of place and distinguish it from other projects. It does not depict the proposed energy park, its infrastructure, or its eventual appearance.”

The next obvious question; is it also published on the websites of all their projects.

Wynne
Jonathan Dean

The greatest prize of all (for Wales) is offshore. Onshore wind in Wales will never be as high as Scotland currently is

Its quite frustrating that, whatever your views on onshore wind, onshore in Wales will always just be a footnote to the GB picture, so if it was all stopped tomorrow it really wouldn’t matter

This is why the Plaid approach is so encouraging as everything they have said will limit what developers can do

IMG_2304
Jonathan Dean

Don’t know

There have never been many suggestions to have offshore wind in the channel, maybe due to shipping, and the 4 GW show is probably Celtic Sea. Currently the 4,500 MW leased there will come ashore at Llandyfaelog, Baglan and Alverdiscott in Devon, and further leasing will all come into Baglan

Eifion

Five gigawatts by 2050 is still four times more than what Wales has at the moment – if that chart is accurate! Remember that Wales is a v small country, and to have four times more machines of nearly 800ft tall, will make a lot of eyesore.
Between the four developers – to date – that want to turn right off the A482, at Pumsaint, there is already 107 of these machines proposed – and have only reached Tregaron, yet!

Eifion

Yes Jac! That is the golden corner, with our hall committee as sentinals of the ‘golden gate’. That junction is to lead them to their feast on the Cambria.

Dafis

Getting to that junction in the picture will be well nigh impossible unless our government conjour a huge road straightening/ building budget from the M4 to Llanwrda and beyond. I recall the movement of towers from Swansea to above Alltwalis c.2009 caused some problems and those sections were much smaller than the newer generation of kit. The A482 is tortuous and any movement beyond that will need a whole range of new civils. Could lead to a heated squabble over who gets new roads here in Wales

Eifion

Jac is spot on! That gatehouse you see ( Y Lodge) is owned by the NT – along with the land that you see to the right of the tarmac road. These massive turbine sections are to turn right there, but splay leftwards – olmost imediately after turning right…vertually touching the lodge!

After passing the lodge, the 107 turbines – to date – will be transported over our ground, the good people of Pumsaint and surrounding area. That small bit of ground is owned by the village hall – which was given to the people of Pumsaint by Johnes family of the Dolaucothi Estate in 1903. The NT inherited the estate after the Johns’s heirs’ demise in the 1940s.

We, the hall committe, represent all the local community, and have not heard one voice that wants us to allow these hulks to go over the Coronation Hall land! The developer that we are dealing with is the little mouse that will open the gate for the nasty and big rats that will follow the mouse on this ‘yellow brick road’ over our community ground – all 107 of them, with more in the pipeline!

Some four months back, we had a secret ballot, where all the members of our committee were asked to vote on if we agree to allow these massive contraptions over our hallowed land. We voted overwhelmingly to not allow any – not one!

From our ground onwards, it is NTs land. They say that they have only allowed ‘surveying work’ to be carried out.But that was a long time back, where they may, by now, have taken the bait, and signed.

We, as a community representative committee have done all we can, to date, to thwart this epic vandalism of ‘Elenydd’ (Cambrians) by doing the right thing by rejecting the developer’s offers. We have met with this cuddliest of vermin (mouse) at least five times – once, at the last time of meeting, they offered to buy our community the Dolaucothi Hotel, even though the NT cannot sell it!!!

As Mrs Thatcher once said: “No! No! No!” They have, by now, taken their application to the next phase, which is PEDW – even though our community has spoken. The ultimate decission will be with Adam Price, our MS for Carmarthenshire in the Senedd. We shall then see what he is made of!

We are holding the line over here at Pumsaint – the last line of defence for the whole of the spine of Wales, Jac! An unspoilt wilderness of nature’s best. If Plaid Cymru, the party for Wales ( cambria latin for Wales) brushes Welsh communities aside and allowes these foreign hordes to desecrate their/our country, then power for them will be short lived.

As I said recently on one of my videos with Gareth Wyn Jones: “Our tank is firmly placed on our Quoits pitch!” Moreover, the developers want us to move our quoits pitches so that they can make a metre high; five metre wide + banks road, across our village field; over our cricket and football pitch, for 45 years!! The NT owns this field. They can stop all this Jac!

To paraphrase Churchill: “we shall not surrender”!

Jonathan Dean

But the 16 GW of offshore will generate 50% more than Wales uses

We only need 10 GW offshore, no onshore and no solar, and will still produce everything we need (on an annual basis)

The onshore and solar is just window dressing and not necessary at all

There is space for another 3, maybe 6 GW off will the north coast, after the 1.5 GW Mona and 0.5 GW Awel y Môr, and 4.5 GW are leased in the Celtic Sea although only half in the Welsh part

Hence the need for Wales to have control over the Crown Estate

Eifion

You are more optimistic about offshore wind than what I am, Johnathan. Yes, their capacity factor is higher – but still rely on the weather, which is out of human control.

Offshore wind is not cheap, if you add all the cost which entail from their intermittency – and the subsidy awarded to the floating type is eyewateringly high.

We, in the UK, are already paying more for our electricity than any other country in the developed world – and rising!

If making people poorer and poorer is the aim of our government to help ‘save the planet’, then they are succeding.

Jonathan Dean

Well according to the people who operate the grid, weather variability isn’t a problem. I don’t know, but then I don’t operate the grid

Offshore isn’t cheap, but nothing is cheap, gas isn’t cheap and nuclear is particularly expensive

Onshore is cheaper, and we can always campaign to have more of that

Floating is more expensive than fixed base, but it is still in development. If we can’t bring the cost down we’ll not build as much of it

Electricity costs in the U.K. are high, but mainly due to the way we choose to cost it. We could reduce the cost by about a third overnight by choosing to cost it differently

Jonathan Dean

This is from the Crown Estate site. Considering offshore has far higher capacity factors than onshore, the onshore wind proposals in Wales are quite insignificant, and if they never happened the only people who would notice are those who have poured money in to them, or hoped to get rich because of them

IMG_6120
Jonathan Dean

Of course it is. Energy has always been about the money. You need to end global capitalism if you want to change that

Jonathan Dean

Oh I’d disagree with that, there is just too much evidence to the contrary, but for every single developer, whether that be for onshore wind or offshore oil and gas, it’s always about the money. You invest capital and make a return

Destabilising supply chains in the Middle East was a brilliant move by Trump to funnel more money from Joe Public into the coffers of his oil backers, and the on/off cease fire another brilliant move for traders who profit from commodity price volatility. The ONLY flaw being it’s so obvious

I cannot remember a time when we didn’t want to break our dependence on, and susceptibility to, the petroleum markets. Now at least we seem to be trying

Liz

Have a Look at Green Generation Energy Cymru…they are tied into Bute..

Dr Jonathan F Dean

There is also a connection to Ireland from Connah’s Quay, as well as the new one from Bodelwyddan and the one from Pembroke. Bute Hydrogen have a connection agreement at Connah’s Quay for a 3,600 MW hydrogen power station!

Generally, if you watch weather patterns and grid flows, as I do in idle moments (sad, I know, the nights can be long), you will see GB starts by importing from Ireland when a storm from the SW arrives and ends up exporting to Ireland a day or so later. We do similar with Norway, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France. If we can buy cheaper than making ourselves we do. Ireland also has cables to Scotland and France. None of the GB – Ireland cables are particularly high capacity, ca 500 MW each, whereas the “standard” for HVDC now seems to be 2,000 MW

Interestingly, of the four circuits that leave Pembroke on two lines of pylons, one of them runs non-stop to Gloucester, not connecting to anything in Wales, and each circuit can handle the entire output of Pembroke power station

CIP are heavily involved investing in the Scottish and North Sea wind farms, but I forget which exactly

Jonathan Dean

Pretty sure they aren’t doing anything yet, but they have a connection agreement listed in NESO’s TEC Register. Might now be rebranded Haldane, but the TEC still says Bute Hydrogen

Liz

There is something going down at CQuay…will dig around..

Liz

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gyy08zg2no Green Gen Cymru is the one to watch…sister company to Bute…and they are involved in CQuay

Jonathan Dean

Green Gen are a distribution network operator (or at least want to be). Not aware of any interest they have at Connah’s Quay