Spanish utility Iberdrola has sold a 49% stake in its 476 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in German waters in the Baltic Sea to Abu Dhabi's Masdar for about 375 million euros ($414.5 million), it said on Wednesday.
Iberdrola said that the deal pegged the total value of the so-called Baltic Eagle project, which is set to have 50 wind turbines off Germany's northeastern coast, once the turbines are built and ready to operate, at about 1.6 billion euros.
Masdar will contribute proportionally to its stake to develop the project.
The Spanish power giant "will control and manage the asset, providing operation and maintenance services and other corporate services" by retaining a 51% majority stake, it added.
Masdar is a renewable energy company owned by the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. The deal is part of Iberdrola's strategy to sell stakes in its wind developments to raise cash to help finance its 150 billion euro 2020-2030 investment plan, mostly devoted to renewables and power grids.
Iberdrola has already struck other similar deals with large sovereign wealth funds Norway's Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) and Singapore's GIC.
($1 = 0.9047 euros)
(Reuters - Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Inti Landauro)
The Baltic Eagle Offshore Wind Farm
Baltic Eagle will consist of 50 wind turbines built on monopile foundations, each with a unit capacity of 9.53 MW. Anticipated annual production is 1.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), enough electricity to meet the electricity demands of 475,000 households, saving 800,000 tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere every year.
The offshore wind farm, which is scheduled to come into initial operation at the end of 2024, has a minimum regulated tariff of €64.6/MWh for the first 20 years. In addition, 100% of its production has already been sold via long-term contracts.
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