Green Giraffe Energy Bankers (GGEB) supported Laidlaw Capital Group in its acquisition of the Veja Mate offshore wind project, situated off the German North Sea coast, from the BARD Group.
Veja Mate is a fully permitted 400 MW project, and benefitting from a binding grid connection. It neighbours the Deutche Bucht offshore wind project, also owned by Laidlaw Capital Group and enjoys similar – and favorable – seabed and wind conditions. Deutche Bucht, which is fully permitted and has a binding grid connection as well, has been under active development over the past 18 months with the active support of GGEB throughout that period and these efforts will be transposed to the Veja Mate project to take advantage of that project’s earlier grid connection date, offering substantial development (and later, operational) synergies.
It is the intention to bring Veja Mate to financial close in the first half of 2015, with construction to be completed by 2017, allowing the project to benefit from the favorable current tariff under the German EEG law, as recently re-confirmed this year. The development efforts are managed by a team of 30 experienced professionals including personnel from GGEB. Laidlaw Capital Group is currently discussing with investors to come in alongside them in the capital structure, which is expected to include non recourse debt provided by project finance lenders, for the construction phase, supported by GGEB as financial advisor.
Together, the projects are expected to generate over 2,700 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to meet the needs of 800,000 German households and will be significant contribution to Germany’s transition to renewable energy.
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