Construction is about to start on a 235MW onshore wind farm in central Sweden, financed via a 29-year fixed-volume power purchase agreement (PPA) with aluminium producer Norsk Hydro.

Green Investment Group (GIG), the specialist green energy principal investment business of Macquarie Group, has announced financial close on €270 million of funding for the project. GIG – which had previously been the UK’s Green Investment Bank before it was sold to Macquarie – will own 100% of the equity. Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited acted as financial adviser to the sponsor on the project, raising c.€160 million of senior debt from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH. Denmark’s Export Credit Agency  is providing export credit cover.

Siemens Gamesa will provide 56 Siemens Gamesa 4.2 MW turbines and will also provide operations and maintenance services to the project through a 25-year agreement.

The project is due to be completed by December 2019. 

Mark Dooley, global head of green energy for Macquarie Capital and the Green Investment Group said: “This project is the latest to utilise a new investment model: developing new projects by working with companies who want to buy renewable energy directly. This model provides the secure revenues needed to finance renewable energy assets with less and less reliance on public subsidy. It follows similarly structured GIG and Macquarie Capital projects such as Markbygden Ett in Sweden, Canadian Breaks in the US and Lal Lal and Murra Warra in Australia.”

Norsk Hydro’s executive vice president for Energy, Arvid Moss, said: “Using renewable energy in our aluminium production is a core strategy of Hydro, and the main reason for our metal’s carbon footprint being among the smallest in the global aluminium industry.”