German Chorus Clean Energy AG based in Neubiberg near Munich acquired four wind parks in the Poitou-Charentes region in Western France with a total capacity of 62.2 MW – the largest wind park portfolio in its company history so far.
The wind park portfolio consists of four wind parks with eight V90 turbines and 14 V117 turbines from Vestas. Two of the wind parks were already connected to the grid in July 2015. These parks consist of the eight Vestas V90 turbines, which have a hub height of 105 meters. Over the course of August and September, the other two parks, which are nearly complete, will begin operations. These two parks have a total of 14 Vestas V117 turbines with a hub height of about 92 meters. All four parks are slated to produce over 148,000 MWh of electricity starting with the first full year of operation. With the new acquisition the total capacity of managed portfolio increases to nearly 400 MW.
With this purchase, Chorus has invested – to a large extent – all funds from its IPO in October 2015 as anticipated. The total investment volume, including the debt component, for the wind parks amounts to about € 120 million. The seller is the wind project developer Volkswind GmbH, a subsidiary of the Swiss energy group Axpo.
CHORUS expects that the turbines will on average contribute about € 15 million to the company’s revenue annually during the term of the feed-in tariff. The funding system in France is similar to Germany’s and uses feed-in tariffs (FIT). These guarantee an inflation-adjusted price over a set period of time and also ensure that the generated electricity will be purchased at this price. The guaranteed feed-in tariff for the four wind parks starts at 85.20 €/MWh fed-in and covers a period of 15 years. The tariff will be adjusted annually based on the combination of several French price indices.
Holger Götze, CEO of Chorus Clean Energy AG, said: “With our most recent purchase, we are significantly expanding our presence in France. France offers very attractive conditions for investments in wind parks. With this transaction, we have invested the proceeds from the capital increase relating to our IPO in the fall of 2015 to a large extent as planned in high-yield renewable energy plants. The remaining IPO proceeds are planned to be invested in the near future. With a total portfolio of currently 397 megawatts, we are among the leading independent operators of wind and solar parks in Germany”,
Silke Funke / Chorus Clean Energy
Photovoltaic Feed