Investor buys £250m stake in Liverpool Bay wind farm
Stock market-listed Greencoat UK Wind has agreed to pay £250m for a 25% stake in a wind farm in Liverpool Bay. Tony McDonough reports
A stock market-listed investor in renewable energy is acquiring a 25% stake in the Burbo Bank Extension wind farm in Liverpool for £250m.
Greencoat UK Wind has agreed a deal with AIP in partnership with a number of pension funds investing through its Greencoat Renewable Income fund to buy the stake. The deal is scheduled to complete on November 30.
Burbo Bank Extension is located in Liverpool Bay, four miles north of Wirral. It was commissioned in July 2017 and comprises 32 8.13MW turbines. It has a grid capacity of 258MW.
The original Burbo Bank wind farm first started generating power from 25 3.6MW turbines in 2007. The relative size of the new turbines illustrates how quickly wind turbine technology is advancing.
Gwynt y Môr, off the North Wales coast, is even bigger. It comprises 160 3.6MW turbines. Earlier this year, plans were submitted to build 107 new turbines in the windfarm. These would offer more than 100MW of electricity. Combined, the Liverpool Bat wind farms can generate power for 700,000 homes.
Orsted will continue to provide operation and maintenance and management services to the wind farm from its base in Birkenhead. The acquisition will be funded using Greencoat’s £600m revolving credit facility, cashflow and the proceeds of a new equity raise.
Chairman Shonaid Jemmett-Page said: “This transaction, once completed, will add another high quality asset to our portfolio which will stand at 41 wind farm investments, with a generating capacity of over 1.3GW.
“This will be our second CFD investment, complementing the investments we are making into merchant assets, and will sit alongside our 38 ROC investments as part of a balanced portfolio.
“Anticipating our commitments over the next 18 months, the equity raise will enable the company to pay down debt and continue to capitalise on the strong pipeline of opportunities in the UK wind farm market, both onshore and offshore.”