PGGM acquires stake in German offshore wind farm

Dutch pension fund manager PGGM has announced that it will acquire a stake in the new 288 MW Baltic 2 offshore wind farm in Germany from Macquarie Capital.

PGGM will invest in the project alongside Macquarie Capital, who agreed to acquire a 49.89% stake in the project earlier this year. The shares were sold to Macquarie Capital by Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW), the German utility constructing the project, who now keeps a stake of 50.11% in the endeavor. PGGM purchased an undisclosed amount of shares from Macquarie Capital.

The wind farm will become fully operational this summer and is located offshore in the German part of the Baltic Sea, 32 km north of the Baltic island of Rügen. Siemens is providing 80 units of their 3.6 MW SWT-3.6-120 turbines, bringing the generating capacity of the project to 288 MW. The site is expected to produce over 1,200 GWh of green power per annum, enough energy to provide for 340,000 households.

Planned to offset 900,000 tons of CO2 per year, the Baltic 2 project is part of the Energiewende, the German policy aimed at a fast transition to low carbon electricity production in the country.

EnBW will take over responsibility for the management of the wind farm and the maintenance work over the lifetime of the project.

The power plant will be subjected to the current German regulatory regime under which it will benefit from approximately eleven years of fixed energy prices and another nine years of downside protection when it sells electricity at market prices. The total investment cost of the project is approximately US$1.38 billion.

Frank Roeters van Lennep, Head of Infrastructure at PGGM, has commented:

"With Baltic 2 we will realize a good financial return and with our investments we can take a next step in helping to make Europe's energy infrastructure more sustainable. Germany will still need a lot of capital to fulfill its Energiewende ambitions and PGGM would like to contribute. Our clients fully support investments in the energy transition."

IPP Journal has recently reported on several wind deals globally:

• Cielo Wind Power sells 200 MW Salt Fork Wind project - USA
• Pattern Energy Acquires a 33% Interest in 270 MW K2 wind farm - Canada
• ORIX acquires 33.3% stake in 100 MW Kashima offshore wind farm - Japan
• TRIG acquires stake in Fred. Olsen’s UK wind portfolio - UK
• Delta sells 40 MW offshore wind farm to TINC Comm VA and DG Infra Yield - Netherlands
• AGL Energy sells its stake in 420 MW Macarthur wind project - Australia