Turbine manufacturer Enercon’s owner the Aloys Wobben Foundation (AWS) and German energy firm EWE have agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture targeting onshore wind project development.
The two partners plan to merge their existing development portfolios and pipelines to create a new company with more than 2.3GW of installed capacity and another 9.4GW-plus to follow.
These projects would mostly be built in Germany and France, as well as in other European countries.,
The deal does not include development of wind turbine technology, sale of turbines and maintenance of wind farms, an AWS spokesman confirmed. Enercon will continue to operate in these core activities once its restructuring process is completed.
AWS and EWE aim invest up to €4 billion by 2030 and expand by more than 200MW annually to increase the operational portfolio to as much as 5GW by the end of the decade.
The company will also include Enercon’s power trading arm Quadra Energy.
Closing of the transaction is due to take place in spring 2021, subject to approval by antitrust authorities, the partners stated.
The company will be headquartered in Aurich, Lower Saxony – where Enercon is based – although its 200 employees would likely be distributed at several locations, including EWE’s home of Oldenburg, 70km south-east of Aurich.
The as yet unnamed new entity will develop its own wind farms, as well as projects for third-party customers.
EWE will provide the company’s corporate management, while the Aloys Wobben Foundation will appoint the chair of its supervisory board.
The two companies had first announced their plans for collaboration in April.
The agreement comes as Enercon’s home market of Germany continues to struggle. Slow permitting projects has prevented developers from securing power deals at auction, and limited opportunities for manufacturers to supply turbines. However, the latest auction was oversubscribed.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
