Northland Power acquisition of Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm project

Overview:

• Canadian renewable energy group Northland Power reached an agreement to acquire the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm project from Highland Group Holdings, a subsidiary of UK based investor Laidlaw Capital, for an undisclosed fee. 
• Located around 90km offshore in the German Bight, Deutsche Bucht is a 252MW wind farm at an advanced stage of development and scheduled for completion in 2019.   
• Highland acquired Deutsche Bucht from the now insolvent Windreich in 2014 and continued to develop the project.  
• Deutsche Bucht will be Northland's second offshore wind farm in German territory; it already owns 85% in the Nordsee One wind farm project, which completed installation of its first turbine in March 2017.
• Germany is one of Europe's chief proponents of energy reform and is in the process of mothballing its nuclear reactors having set itself a target of producing 50% of electricity its consumes from renewable sources by 2030. 
• Closing of Northland's acquisition of Deutsche Bucht is subject to approval but expected around the start of the third quarter of 2017.  

Ben Naylor - Regional editor