Mitsubishi to pump €576m into German offshore wind projects

17 Jan 2013

Dutch-owned German transmission system operator TenneT has closed a deal with Mitsubishi, which will see the Japanese firm invest €576m in four high-voltage cables to connect offshore wind farms to the German mainland.

Mitsubishi will pay €240m for a 49pc stake in the BorWin 1 and BorWin 2 projects, while it will also fork out €336m for a 49pc stake in the HelWin2 and DolWin2 projects.

The total investment in the four high-voltage cables will be €2.9bn, with the cables set to connect a number of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea to the electricity grid.

According to TenneT, the four offshore grid connections will have a combined capacity of 2.8 gigawatts, which the company said would represent close to 30pc of the German government’s total ambition for offshore wind in the North Sea.

“The equity commitment of Mitsubishi Corporation is further strengthening our balance sheet and keeps us well on track when it comes to financing our offshore investments,” said TenneT’s chief financial officer Eelco de Boer, in a statement.

He said the transactions involving Mitsubishi took two years to complete.

“They demonstrate that the German legal and regulatory regime is attractive to institutional investors,” he added.

With Germany planning to phase out its reliance on nuclear power by 2022, the country is pushing to upgrade its electricity grid in order to support viable renewable energy sources, such as wind.

The German government is aiming to double its renewable energy-generation capacity, mainly from wind, from 17pc to 35pc by 2020.

In terms of offshore wind, Germany has a target of achieving 10GW of wind power capacity by 2020 and 25GW by 2030 – the equivalent of around 20 nuclear reactors.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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