Mitsubishi backs German offshore wind farms with €765m

Mitsubishi announced it is backing offshore wind projects in Germany, with an investment of €576 million (£481.2m).The Japanese firm is helping Netherlends-based grid operator TenneT connect wind farms to the power grid. TenneT said Mitsubishi will pay €240 million (£200.5m) for a 49% stake in the BorWin1 and BorWin2 grid connection projects and €336 million (£280.7m) for a 49% stake in HelWin2 and DolWin2.

The four plants have a total production capacity of 2.8GW, more than two average nuclear reactors.Last year, Germany announced it would be phasing out nuclear power by 2022 in favor of renewable energy instead, with offshore wind expected to be one of the main energy sources. Although it plans to add 25,000MW of offshore wind turbines by 2030, it was delayed after TenneT failed to finish grid connection projects on time.

Eelco de Boer, TenneT’s CFO said: “The equity commitment of Mitsubishi Corporation is further strengthening our balance sheet and keeps us well on track when it comes to financing our offshore investments. These innovative transactions took two years to complete… They demonstrate that the German legal and regulatory regime is attractive to institutional investors.”

TenneT is currently operating two and working on eight projects to connect wind farms in the German North Sea, with a total of 5.3MW of energy, enough to power around 5 million homes.