BlackRock Real Assets’ $1.65bn (€1.42bn) global renewables fund has added a €200m wind power project in Norway to its portfolio.
BlackRock’s Global Renewable Power II (GRP II) fund acquired the construction-ready 197.4MW Guleslettene wind farm from Zephyr.
Construction costs are estimated to total around €200m which will be funded by BlackRock Real Assets alongside long-term debt financing from DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale.
Work will begin this summer and the commissioning is expected in late 2020.
Zephyr will manage the construction and once operational, manage the project on behalf of BlackRock Real Assets through a construction and asset management agreement.
The project will be built on the West coast of Norway around 10km north of the city of Florø and Alcoa Norway ANS has agreed a power purchase agreement to buy the entire electricity produced for a period of 15 years.
BlackRock said as part of the power purchase agreement, the project has also entered into a power purchase guarantee with the Norwegian Export Credit Guarantee Agency.
Rory O’Connor, a managing director and head of renewable power for Europe at BlackRock, said: “This transaction demonstrates BlackRock’s continued focus on renewable power investments, where the firm now has $5bn of equity assets under management and has invested in over 170 wind and solar projects globally.”
GRP II has so far invested over 75% of the $1.65bn of investor commitments in a diversified portfolio of 12 renewable power infrastructure assets across four continents.
Sverker Åkerblom, a director and portfolio manager at BlackRock Real Assets, said: “We are delighted to partner with Alcoa, Zephyr and DekaBank in completing another landmark transaction in Norway following our acquisition of the Tellenes wind farm in 2016.
“We view the Norwegian renewables market, and the Nordic region more widely, as an attractive market for wind projects and we have to date invested in close to 600MW of wind projects across Norway and Sweden producing enough electricity to power more than 300,000 European households.”
Olav Rommetveit, a managing director at Zephyr AS, said: “Together with the local communities in Bremanger and Flora, Zephyr has spent the past decade developing Guleslettene wind farm. It is satisfying to reach financial close for what will become the largest wind farm that Zephyr has developed and built.”
