Green Investment Group reaches financial close on new 235 MW PPA-backed onshore wind farm

Green Investment Group (GIG), the specialist green energy principal investment business of Macquarie Group (Macquarie), today announced financial close on €270m of total funding for a 235 MW onshore wind farm in central Sweden.

The project was developed by GIG and SCA Energy AB (SCA) and will comprise 56 Siemens Gamesa 4.2 MW turbines.

Partnering with SCA, GIG has commercialised, structured and financed the project through development to financial close. This includes the origination and structuring of what is believed to be one of the longest corporate wind energy PPA’s globally, with a 29-year fixed-volume agreement with Norsk Hydro – one of the largest aluminum companies in the world. Scandinavia is a priority market for GIG and the transaction extends the growing relationship with Norsk Hydro following the GIG backed 650 MW Markbygden Ett onshore wind farm last year.

GIG will own 100 per cent of the equity in the project. Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited acted as financial adviser to the sponsor on the project, raising c.€160m of senior debt from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB) and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (KfW). Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) is providing export credit cover. Siemens Gamesa will provide operations and maintenance services to the project through a 25-year agreement. NEAS Energy (part of Centrica plc) will provide balancing and hedging services for the project.

Main construction at the project site is scheduled to commence imminently and is expected to be completed by December 2019. The project is located at Länsterhöjden & Storflötten in the Ånge Municipality of Västernorrland, central Sweden.

"The Överturingen project demonstrates our capability as a development partner, successfully bringing permitted projects forward to financial close. By working closely with SCA, Siemens Gamesa and Norsk Hydro, we were able to establish the partnerships needed to convert a development opportunity into a market-leading project under construction."

Ed Northam
Head of GIG in Europe

"This project is the latest to utilise a new investment model – developing new projects by working with companies who want to buy renewable energy directly. This model provides the secure revenues needed to finance renewable energy assets with less and less reliance on public subsidy. It follows similarly structured GIG and Macquarie Capital projects such as Markbygden Ett in Sweden, Canadian Breaks in the US and Lal Lal and Murra Warra in Australia."

Mark Dooley
Global Head of Green Energy for Macquarie Capital and the Green Investment Group

"We have developed this project together with Turinge Energi AB. We’re glad that the project now will be realised by a strong and committed team of partners. The demand for renewable energy is growing and we’re glad to contribute by more green electricity produced on SCA land, in line with our sustainability ambitions."

Mikael Källgren
SCA’s President Renewable Energy

"We are proud to set a visible example of the performance of our products in Sweden. Our technology perfectly meets the site and project-specific requirements. At the same time, this project demonstrates the attractiveness of wind energy for the capital markets, investors and communities."

Ricardo Chocarro
CEO Onshore at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy

"Having partnered with GIG also in 2017 on the Markbygden wind power project, Europe’s largest wind power project, Hydro is happy to announce yet another cooperation with GIG. Using renewable energy in our aluminium production is a core strategy of Hydro, and the main reason for our metal’s carbon footprint being among the smallest in the global aluminium industry."

Arvid Moss
Norsk Hydro’s executive vice president for Energy

This is the second Swedish onshore project to be backed by GIG in the space of a year, with construction underway on the Markbygden Ett onshore wind farm in the north of the country. GIG reached financial close on this project with GE Energy Financial Services (GEEFS) in November 2017.

This extension of GIG’s investment approach to become a development partner, investing earlier in the project lifecycle, follows other investments in Candela Renewables, a solar development team in the US, and Acacia Renewables, an onshore wind development team in Japan.

Macquarie, together with its Green Investment Group business, is one of the world’s leading green energy investors and managers. Since 2010 the combined business has invested over £15bn in over 200 projects across 20 countries through our team of 250 green finance specialists. Macquarie has helped to finance 20 GW of operational capacity and is developing a further 7 GW, backing projects from onshore wind in Sweden to offshore wind in Taiwan and from solar in Japan to battery storage in California.