NTR spends €180m on Nordic wind farms
NTR’s latest investment fund has acquired a number of operational and in-development onshore wind energy projects in Sweden and Finland.
The 200MW portfolio includes three operational wind farms generating a total of up to 94MW of power.
The total cost of the acquisition and development of the assets is expected to be more than €180m, said NTR.
All of the assets were acquired from a consortium of nine industrial companies called Vindin, which includes Dutch paint firm Akzo Nobel. Other members of the consortium include Tara Mines owner Boliden and Germany’s Heidelberg Cement.
NTR announced earlier this month that it had secured commitments of €229m for its second renewable energy fund, with a target of raising €500m.
The company said it has secured €145m for the first close of the fund, and will invest in pre-construction and operational onshore wind and solar projects across a number of European markets.
The European Investment Bank is investing up to €84m of equity in the fund, which is guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments – or Juncker Plan.
The three operational wind farms acquired by the new fund include a 69MW facility in northern Sweden, a 10MW farm in the east of the coun- try, and a 15MW scheme in the west of Finland.
NTR said it expects to bring a development cluster of sites in southern Sweden with a combined potential to generate 108MW of power into operation in 2021.
The company’s chief investment officer, Manus O’Donnell, said the investments in Sweden and Finland represent “exciting new geographies” for the latest fund.
“This portfolio of projects provides an attractive mix across the development life-cycle, in line with our fund’s strategy to complement projects in development with those already up and running,” hesaid.
The group said that it will put in place long-term power price contracts for the Swedish projects, adding that there is considerable demand given the scale of the portfolio.
It added that the 15MW wind farm in Finland benefits from a feed-in tariff programme that’s supported by the Finnish government.
NTR announced in November that its new investment fund had acquired nine operational solar farms in the UK for an enterprise value of €61.3m. The solar plants can generate up to a combined 38.4MW of electricity.
It also bought wind farms in France, which marked NTR’s first entry into that market. It bought an 8.8MW wind farm project in Normandy that is just entering into production, and a 10.2MW plant in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.