Wednesday 21st February 2018

German tender cuts community wind

The German government has backed onshore wind projects of 709MW in its latest tender, at an average price of €46/MWh.

Community-owned groups won only 22% of the support awarded this time, compared with 99% in the previous auction in November. This is because grid operator Bundesnetzagentur has decided to scrap rules advantageous to community-owned groups, which manufacturers have warned are threatening order pipelines.

The new rules have also caused average support price to rise to €46/MWh from €38/MWh in November. Eighty-three projects with total capacity of 709MW were awarded a contract.

Read more on the effects of German auctions on turbine makers

Goldman to lend A$525m to Infigen

Goldman Sachs is set to provide a A$525m ($414m) credit facility to Australian wind developer Infigen to refinance its debt.

The credit facility would have a five-year maturity and would be used to refinance Infigen's long-term debt, so it can pursue growth in the wind sector and pay distributions to shareholders. Infigen is also seeking an A$80m ($63m) liquidity facility to back its growth strategy, which includes a move towards more power purchase agreements with commercial and industrial customers.

The $414m financing is set to complete by the end of March. Infigen owns six operating and seven under-construction wind farms in Australia, for a total capacity of 670MW.

Ørsted in talks to sell 50% of Hornsea 1

Ørsted is in exclusive talks to sell 50% of the 1.2GW Hornsea 1 wind farm that it is building in the UK part of the North Sea.

The Danish utility has confirmed that it is in talks to divest 50% of the scheme, and is looking to finalise a deal in the second half of 2018 or 2019. Hornsea 1 is set to consist of 174 7MW turbines from Siemens Gamesa, and won a Contract for Difference at a strike price of £140/MWh from the UK government in 2014.

Construction started on the monopiles for the scheme last month. Hornsea 1 is set to be the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Aussie packaging firm signs wind PPA

Australian packaging firm Orora has agreed to buy electricity from a 57MW wind scheme owned by Pacific Hydro in South Australia.

The parties did not disclose the volume of energy that Orora is set to buy, but the company said it would use it to power its Gawler glass bottle facility in the region.

The 57MW Clements Gap wind farm is based the northern area of South Australia and has been operational since 2010.

Statkraft enters Polish onshore wind

Norwegian utility Statkraft has entered Poland's onshore wind market with a re-selling deal at three wind farms totalling 80MW.

Stakraft is set to buy and re-sell the electricity produced by the three unnamed wind projects. This fits into the utility's strategy to focus on onshore wind after selling out of its offshore wind assets.

Statkraft revealed a plans to enter the Polish market in October.

Wind Watch

Wind Watch is published every Monday, Thursday and Friday.

In the meantime, please make sure you have signed up for our first Quarterly Drinks evening of the year, on 7th March...

This year, we will host Quarterly Drinks in London with our partners at Foresight Group, at their iconic event space in the Shard. We're also pleased to welcome gold sponsor Totaro & Associates, and our silver sponsor Ionic Consulting.

And this time we will be joined by Richard Nourse, managing partner at Greencoat Capital, for our 20-minute Q&A session. Richard is a seasoned investor and respected voice on the wind industry, and we're looking forward to a stimulating discussion.

We hope to see you there. And remember, if you can't make it, please tell us which of your colleagues will be there instead.