Green Light by US Authorities: innogy Successfully Closed Onshore Wind Transaction Exceeding 2,000 Megawatts

The Germany-based energy company innogy SE acquired from UK private equity investor, Terra Firma Capital Partners, the EverPower Wind Holdings' US onshore wind development business. Both companies signed the respective purchase agreement already at the end of 2017. Now the entire transaction has been successfully completed following approval by the US government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and pending consents of authorities on state level. With this acquisition, innogy became the sole owner of more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind projects in various development stages. The projects are located across eight states, which are attractive for renewables (Maine, Maryland, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wyoming). All parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential. 

The pipeline includes three wind projects in late stage development: Cassadaga (~126MW), Baron Winds (~270MW) in the State of New York and Scioto Ridge in Ohio (~ 200MW). innogy plans to bring these projects online before the end of 2020. Scioto Ridge will be innogy's first US onshore wind farm targeted to start full construction in early 2019. 

With over 2,100MW installed capacity in onshore wind, innogy is one of the major operators of renewables in Europe. In addition, the company's development pipeline for renewables consists of more than 7,800MW in total in on- and offshore wind as well as solar. 

Hans Bünting, COO Renewables of innogy SE, explains: "We aim to grow our renewables activities worldwide. With the acquisition of EverPower's excellent onshore wind pipeline, we have established innogy as a relevant renewables player in the US market, one of our key strategic growth areas. Our strengthened team will now focus on execution of our first US wind projects. After commissioning, our wind farms will supply hundreds of thousands of homes with green energy." 

Andrew Young, CEO of Innogy Renewables US LLC, adds: "With more than 20 development projects this pipeline serves as a strong foundation for innogy's expansion into the US onshore wind business. Together with the experienced development team based in Pittsburgh, who have joined the innogy-family, we will turn these project opportunities into successful operating renewable energy projects."

In combination with its new Pittsburgh office, Innogy Renewables US LLC's platform, established in Chicago in 2016, now consists of a team of more than 40 colleagues. 

Execution of the onshore wind pipeline will be realised incrementally with commercial assessment of every project as an investment opportunity under innogy's hurdle rate framework. innogy will review all options under various ownership and financing structures to optimize value for the company and its shareholders to implement growth in alignment with innogy's leverage and financial stability targets. 

innogy will leverage its considerable experience in developing, designing, financing, constructing and operating renewables assets both independently, and together with project partners and investors to support its valuable growth strategy. In addition to onshore wind, offshore wind and solar are also part of innogy's scope in the US. Recently innogy secured exclusive rights for solar development projects in the US with a total capacity of approx. 440MW. Furthermore, innogy is active in the US e-mobility market through its acquisition of leading company BTCPower earlier this month.

innogy | www.innogy.com