Airtricity sells wind farm stake
Tuesday November 04 2008
Irish-based wind energy company Airtricity, which was acquired by Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) earlier this year, has sold a 50pc stake in a major wind farm project off the coast of Suffolk in England to German utilities giant RWE for £308m.
The so-called Greater Gabbard wind farm will be the world's largest offshore wind farm when completed in 2011. It will consist of 140 turbines capable of generating a total of about 500 megawatts of power.
Earlier this year, SSE bought out the 50pc joint venture interest in the project of Flour International for £40m in cash. It signalled at the time that it would sell the same stake on to another partner to raise more equity to develop the wind farm.
The development of Greater Gabbard, excluding the connection to the electricity grid, is expected to require investment of around £1.3bn.
RWE is investing in the project through Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of its RWE Innogy renewable energy division.
Onshore work on the construction of the wind farm is under way, and offshore work is on track to begin in the middle of 2009.
- Joe Brennan
