The project, which will be located 80km off the northern coast of Germany, will cost in excess of E1 billion to build. The wind farm will comprise 80 wind turbines with a combined generation capacity of 400MW.
Projects of this scale have reportedly been made possible by Germany’s comprehensive regulatory framework and incentive schemes for renewable power, as amended by German Parliament at the beginning of June 2008.
When completed, the wind farm will generate approximately 1.6 billion KWh annually. This would be sufficient to supply 500,000 households with electricity, thereby eliminating approximately 1.4 million tons of CO2 that would otherwise be produced from coal-fired power generation facilities.
David Foley, senior managing director at Blackstone, said: We are pleased to join with our partner, Mr Falkenhagen, to complete the development and begin construction of this well designed project. This will be Blackstone’s second significant investment in renewable energy following the financial closing of the $870 million Bujagali hydroelectric power station project by Blackstone’s 80% owned portfolio company, Sithe Global, in December 2007.
