More backing for Meerwind

The Blackstone Group has formed a partnership with Windland Energieerzeugungs to construct Meerwind, one of the North Sea’s largest wind farms.

The Blackstone Group, the global Investment and advisory firm, has formed a partnership with German wind energy group Windland Energieerzeugungs to complete the development and construction of Meerwind, one of the North Sea’s largest wind farms.

The project, which will be located 80km off the northern coast of Germany, will comprise 80 wind turbines with a combined generation capacity of 400MW. The farm will cost in excess of €1bn to build.

The project supports the German government’s stated objective of fighting global warming by reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by the year 2020.

When completed, the wind farm will generate approximately 1.6bn KWh annually, sufficient to supply 500,000 households with electricity, and eliminating approximately 1.4m tons of CO2 that would otherwise be produced from coal-fired power generation facilities.

'This will be Blackstone’s second significant investment in renewable energy following the financial closing of the $870m Bujagali hydroelectric power station project by Blackstone’s 80 per cent owned portfolio company, Sithe Global, in December 2007,' said David Foley, senior managing director at Blackstone.