05/12/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
Otary-led group closes on €1.3bn Seamade A consortium led by Otary has reached financial close on the €1.3bn 487MW Seamade offshore wind project in Belgian waters.
Seamade is comprised of the 252MW Seastar and 235MW Mermaid schemes, and is owned by Otary (70%), Engie (17.5%) and Eneco (12.5%). The project has been financed by a group of 15 commercial banks, Danish export credit agency EKF and t ...
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03/12/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
Japan eyes first offshore auction in early 2019 The Japanese parliament has approved a bill that could lead to the first competitive auctions for offshore wind as soon as spring 2019.
The government has backed a bill to promote offshore wind power, and now plans to identify up to five maritime areas suitable for offshore wind development. It is also looking to establish a competitive tender pr ...
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03/12/2018
Wind Watch
Alice Jones
Investors in the booming Swedish wind market could end up as victims of their own success. But why? It’s the country’s Green Electricity Certificates scheme.
Let me explain. Currently, under the Green Electricity Certificates system introduced in Sweden in 2003 and adopted by Norway in 2012, independent power producers are given a certificate by the government for every MWh of renewable energy ...
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30/11/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
EDPR secures £2.6bn for 950MW Moray East A group led by EDP Renewables has secured £2.6bn of construction funding for the 950MW Moray East offshore wind farm off Scotland.
The financing package includes £2.1bn of debt and £500m of ancillary facilities, and has been provided by 16 commercial banks including EKF and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Financial close is due by the end ...
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30/11/2018
Wind Watch
Richard Heap
I’ve been working with my publisher Adam for almost five years, which means that I've heard the following story a few times. He started A Word About Wind in 2012, on a beach in Costa Rica, because he was concerned about the impact climate change would have on the world around him.
He believed that unlocking further investment in the wind sector globally would help curb the worst impacts of clim ...
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28/11/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
GIP completes £4.5bn deal for Hornsea 1 stake Global Infrastructure Partners has finalised its buyout of half of Ørsted's 1.2GW project Hornsea 1 in UK waters for £4.5bn.
The deal was announced in September and completed this week. GIP has partly funded the purchase with a £3.5bn financial package, which includes a £400m investment from insurance firm Aviva Investors. It is Aviva's largest infr ...
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26/11/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
Vattenfall and Ørsted vague on Horns Rev re-start The Danish offshore wind farm Horns Rev 1 is out of operation due to a transformer failure and it is unclear when it'll be back online.
The wind farm is owned by Vattenfall (60%) and Ørsted (40%), and has been offline since 22nd October due to a transformer failure. The firms are working on resolving the issue, which is set to require replacemen ...
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26/11/2018
Wind Watch
Ilaria Valtimora
While UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been battling to finalise and win support for her Brexit deal, the past few weeks have also been busy for UK renewables.
Two weeks ago, the European Court of Justice suspended the UK’s capacity market for back-up power after annulling the European Commission’s decision to not object to the scheme. Essentially, the ECJ has ruled the capacity market is too ...
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23/11/2018
News
Ilaria Valtimora
Enercon starts on 1.1GW Swedish colossus German turbine maker Enercon has taken a final investment decision to build the up-to-1.1GW Markbygden 2 wind farm in Sweden.
Enercon’s head of Swedish operations Pamela Lundin said last weekthat construction work on the project has started and completion is due in 2021. Enercon bought the project from Svevind in 2016, and gained initial approval to bui ...
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23/11/2018
Wind Watch
Alice Jones
Last week, we analysed the top 30 emerging wind energy markets in our Emerging Markets Attractiveness Index. Ukraine made the cut, but only just. It came in last place as economic and political uncertainty weighed on its prospects.
In fact, 2018 has been fairly good for Ukraine’s diminutive wind market. In the first half of the year, 50.35MW of wind farms were completed, bringing total capacity ...
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