From left: Werner Süss, Ewald Woste and Lars B Meyer. Image: NextWind
According to reports, NextWind will be acquired by investors following the latest funding round.
NextWind, a Berlin-based renewable energy start-up, has secured $750m to rapidly expand its portfolio of windfarms in Europe.
With 10 existing windfarms across northern and eastern Germany, NextWind hopes the latest investment will help it renew Germany’s ageing wind turbines and boost the country’s energy transition plans.
The funding was led by US-based investor Sandbrook Capital, together with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) and IMCO. According to reports, NextWind has been acquired by the three investors as part of the deal.
Founded in 2020 following a $100m investment led by Crestline Investors, NextWind is managed by co-founders Lars B Meyer, Werner Süss and Ewald Woste. It has a team of 20 professionals working towards energy efficiency.
“With the new investors, we can now accelerate the implementation of our business model,” said Meyer. “We will acquire and repower more wind power plants to achieve our goal of becoming a major sustainable power producer in Germany.”
Along with Sweden and France, Germany is one of the the biggest onshore wind markets in Europe with an installed power generation capacity of around 58 gigawatts as of 2022, according to NextWind. Around 30pc of this capacity has been operational for more than 15 years.
“The repowering is the starting point. In addition, we are particularly concerned with the question of energy stability for Germany and how we can establish base load capability with renewable energies,” added Süss.
“We identify wind farms that are suitable for combination with photovoltaic systems as well as batteries for intermediate storage. We want to redefine classic energy supply – green, decentralised and sustainable.”
Woste said that while the expansion of wind power “has almost come to a standstill” in recent years, politicians are “now setting the course more consistently” in the direction of renewable energies, and NextWind wants to make the most of this movement.
“With innovative technological concepts, we want to become a leading and reliable renewable IPP in the German market. We move quickly and agilely to invest the fresh capital, because we have an important advantage: we are not carrying around any burdens from the fossil fuel era.”
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