GE has partnered with the Green Investment Group to “deliver and operate” 650 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind in Sweden.
In an announcement Tuesday, GE said that the Markbygden ETT wind farm, in the north of the country, would be home to Europe’s biggest “single site” onshore wind farm and would boost Sweden’s installed wind generation by over 12.5 percent.
GE said that GE Financial Services and the Green Investment Group – part of the Macquarie Group – had jointly acquired the project from wind developer Svevind, which has been working on the development for the past 15 years. Approximately 800 million euros ($928 million) has been raised in financing.
Construction on the facility has started and it is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019. GE Renewable Energy will provide the project with 179 of its 3.6 MW turbines. To deal with adverse weather conditions, the turbines will make use of an “ice mitigation system” developed by LM Wind Power.
“Markbygden ETT marks our commitment to the Swedish onshore wind arena and extends our presence in Europe,” Pete McCabe, president and CEO of GE’s onshore wind business, said in a statement. The project would also show GE and LM Wind Power’s technical capabilities, he added.
Aluminium giant Norsk Hydro will purchase power produced from the site through a 19-year fixed volume corporate power purchase agreement (PPA). GE said that this was understood to be the world’s biggest corporate wind energy PPA.
Anmar Frangoul
www.cnbc.com
