UK and Irish energy company SSE Renewables has acquired land and development rights for a 134MW onshore wind portfolio in Germany from Holt Holding.
The portfolio includes five projects, which marks SSE Renewables’ incremental investment in pursuing an early opportunity in Germany.
Once the permission is secured, the wind projects in the portfolio could be eligible for entering the German onshore wind auction and bid for fixed price contract for a period of 20 years.
SSE Renewables managing director Jim Smith said: “Whilst a small investment compared to our significant offshore wind pipeline, this first step will help provide more detailed insight into an adjacent market with significant growth potential. This acquisition is a good incremental addition to the SSE Renewables’ onshore pipeline.”
The acquisition is part of SSE Renewables’ plans to continually exploring opportunities to grow its portfolio across onshore and offshore wind, hydro-electric assets. The company targets to develop and build enough renewable energy capacity to treble annual output of renewable electricity to 30TWh.
SSE Renewables developed nearly 2.5GW of onshore wind in the UK and Ireland
To date, the company has developed nearly 2.5GW of onshore wind in the UK and Ireland, which is in-line with SSE Group’s strategy to recycle capital for future developments.
In addition to its onshore activities, the firm will continue to develop an offshore wind pipeline of over 7GW across the UK and Ireland. The pipeline includes 3.6GW Dogger Bank Wind Farms in which SSE Renewables’ share is 50% and 1GW Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm.
Dogger Bank wind farm includes three individual projects with 1.2GW capacity – Creyke Beck A, Creyke Beck B, and Teesside A – in the North Sea, about 130km from the UK’s Yorkshire coast.
In October, SSE Renewables and its joint venture partner Equinor selected ABB and Aibel to supply offshore converter platform and HVDC power transmission system for the 3.6GW Dogger Bank offshore wind farm.
