Typhoon Offshore and HVC Acquire 600MW Offshore Wind Farm from BARD

Typhoon Offshore, the green investment company, and HVC, the Alkmaar-based energy provider to municipalities and water districts, have acquired from BARD Holding GmbH the 600MW wind farm that will be constructed in the North Sea, 55 kilometers North East of Schiermonnikoog.

With this acquisition, the largest renewable energy project in The Netherlands is now fully owned by Dutch shareholders. BARD will remain involved in the project as turbine supplier.

This was announced today by Dirk Berkhout, board member of Typhoon Offshore and responsible for the financing and contracting of the wind farm, Wim van Lieshout, CEO of HVC and Bernd Ranneberg, CEO of BARD Holding GmbH.

 Increased Dutch content

Berkhout: “The financing of the project is on track, and we expect to start construction in August 2012, a year earlier than was agreed with the Ministry Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation in the context of the SDE subsidy. That the project is now in Dutch hands can play a role with respect to the allocation of the SDE rest budget subsidy, in which case the wind farm could be increased by an additional 100MW.”

 Increased public content

 Van Lieshout: “HVC seeks to maximize the public content in this wind farm. We wish to stimulate the participation of municipalities, provinces and water authorities. The fact that this project is now fully Netherlands owned will facilitate this. HVC currently holds a 15% interest in the project”.

 BARD as turbine supplier

 Ranneberg; “With Typhoon, HVC and Van Oord we were able to find strong partners to help us bring the projects to realisation. We are pleased to have found a solution in which we will continue to play a major role in these projects. The BARD Group will deliver a considerable share of the necessary components for these projects, particularly wind turbines and foundations.”

 About Typhoon Offshore

Typhoon Offshore B.V. is a green investment company specializing in the realisation of offshore wind farms in the North Sea. Typhoon Offshore is managing the structuring and financing of the largest offshore wind project in The Netherlands, located 55 kilometers northeast of Schiermonnikoog. The Typhoon Offshore team previously oversaw the arrangements for the financing of the Belwind and Princess Amalia wind farms.

 About HVC

By providing a way for municipalities and water districts to collaborate with public utilities, HVC seeks to help participating governments to achieve their objectives in the area of sustainable waste management and energy production. HVC is owned by 52 participating municipalities in North Holland, Flevoland, South Holland and Friesland and five water districts: Delfland, Rijnland, Rivierenland, Schieland and de Krimpenerwaard, and Hollandse Delta. HVC is engaged in sustainable waste management and green energy production on behalf of these shareholders. Those activities are carried out according to the wishes and needs of the shareholders. To that end, HVC constantly strives to achieve an optimal balance between sustainable business operations and costs.

 About BARD

BARD is currently installing the first commercial wind farm in the German North Sea (“BARD Offshore 1”). 16 of the planned 80 wind converters in this 400MW project are already connected to the grid, 40 of the 80 foundations have already been installed.. BARD Holding GmbH is the BARD Group’s parent company, which includes BARD Engineering GmbH, founded in 2003 as a project development and investment company specializing in offshore wind farms. The whole value creation chain in the area of electricity production from offshore wind power is now largely covered by companies in the BARD Group. BARD Emden Energy GmbH & Co. KG has been manufacturing and assembling its own rotor blades, GRP components and complete offshore wind turbines in Emden since the end of 2006. BARD Tripile foundation structures for BARD offshore wind turbines went into series production at Cuxhaven Steel Construction GmbH in 2008. The Bremen, Emden, Groningen and Cuxhaven sites employ more than 1,000 people in total.

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Source: typhooncapital, August 31, 2011; Image: alpha ventus, November 16, 2009