Aquila buys minority stake in 400 MW The Rock wind project in Mosjoen and cancels Korkeakangas wind transaction

Aquila European Renewables Income Fund (AERIF), advised by Aquila Capital, has approved the signing of a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) to purchase approximately 14% of the equity in a Norwegian 400 MW The Rock wind farm under construction. The company will seek to increase its commitment to the project in due course.

The Rock is an onshore wind farm project located in Mosjöen, Norway. The project's construction began in 2019 and AERIF anticipates that the wind farm will be fully operational in early Q4 2021. Once the construction is completed, the wind farm will comprise 72 wind turbines with a total capacity of 400 MW, which makes The Rock one of the biggest onshore wind farms in Europe. It will save approximately 14,350 tons of CO² emissions per annum, saving an estimated 430,481 tons over the projected lifetime of the asset. 

The project is expected to have an operational life of 30 years. In the first year of operation, approximately 91% of the production will be hedged by a power purchase agreement (PPA). For the following 14 years, it has entered into PPAs covering approximately 70% of production. Prior to completion of construction, AERIF will earn income through forward funding construction finance.

On 20 December 2019, AERIF announced its commitment to project Korkeakangas, an onshore wind farm construction project located in Finland. The SPA in relation to 100% of the shares in Korkeakangas Wind Oy, a Finnish company that owns project Korkeakangas, was signed in December 2019 and subject to certain closing conditions. Given that some of the closing conditions have not yet been met and in light of current market conditions, the parties have agreed that it is mutually beneficial to unwind the transaction.