Foresight Group has completed the acquisition of Sweden’s Skaftasen wind project

On April 20, 2020, Foresight Group LLP, a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment management firm in the United Kingdom announced the completion of its acquisition of the 231 MW Skaftasen wind project in Sweden.

Foresight first confirmed its acquisition of the project from Arise AB in December 2019. Skaftasen wind project is set to become the biggest asset in the Foresight portfolio. The deal is sealed along with the co-investor syndicate of four institutions with an advisory agreement related to their investment with Foresight. The syndicate group comprises of BAE Systems Pension Funds Investment Management Ltd (“BAPFIM”), Kommunal Landspensjonskasse Gjensidig Forsikringsselskap (“KLP”), and Arcano Partners (“Arcano”).

In April 2019, Siemens Gamesa gave a presentation on the world’s first Siemens Gamesa 5.X platform during WindEurope Bilbao trade fair. Within seven months of its introduction, it got a deal from Foresight and Arise AB to install the advanced and powerful onshore wind turbine SG 5.8-155 in the Skaftasen wind project.

The contract involves the installation of a total of 35 turbines with a flexible power rating and operating at 6.6 MW, which adds up to 231 MW.  Additionally, a 30-year full-service agreement is also in place that will help in generating predictable revenue streams over its lifecycle, improving the business case of the project. The project is located at Härjedalen Municipality of Central Sweden. That is the first commercial-scale project using the new Siemens Gamesa 5x platform. Currently, construction work on the project is going on as per the schedule and on budget. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.

Upon completion, it is expected to save energy equivalent to 425,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year emitted by a coal-fired power plant. Skaftasen wind project also contributes 1% of its revenue to the local communities during operations.

Richard Thompson, Partner, Foresight Group said: “We are delighted to have been able to introduce such a strong syndicate of co-investors alongside our Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners fund to support the development of this, our first greenfield onshore wind investment in Sweden. We are continuing to find strong demand amongst European institutional investors for the renewable energy infrastructure asset class, given both its resilience and strong sustainability characteristics, and expect to be able to announce further closes for FEIP, which has a target size of €500m, in due course.”

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