Polish Offshore: On the Verge

Udo Schneider discussed the investor’s perspective on offshore wind at the recent Windforce conference in Gdansk, Poland, touching on how value is created and how the varying support regimes compare.   Udo Schneider, director of Green Giraffe’s Hamburg office, presented “Offshore wind – Energising an industry” at the recent Windforce conference in Gdansk, Poland. He discussed the investor’s perspective on offshore wind, touching on how value is created and how the varying support regimes compare. The presentation is available here.

Jérôme Guillet, Managing Director of Green Giraffe describes the economic and regulatory framework for offshore wind in the various countries around the Baltic Sea, and discusses how the industry’s development may be funded. At the end of 2012, 704 MW of offshore wind capacity is operational in the Baltic Sea, with another 448 MW under construction. There are sufficient wind resources to develop approximately 40 GW of offshore wind energy capacity in the area. However, such development of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea will largely depend on the regulatory frameworks offered in the various countries surrounding the sea. The region’s states are at very different stages of economic development and have diff erent starting points as regards their current energy mix – and also diff erent views on how such mix should evolve. Some are still highly reliant on Russian oil and gas imports (for instance, in Poland, 94% of oil, 80%  of gas and 70% of coal is imported from Russia) and look favourably at a home-grown resource. Some have access to plentiful and cheap hydro and are in  no urgent need of more wind capacity (e.g. Sweden). Some may balk at supporting a sector whose costs of production are still higher than traditional power sources. On the other hand, EU Member States also need to fulfil the Union’s existing renewable energy targets. Click here for the full article

Green Giraffe assisted in the development and sale of an 1.5 GW offshore wind development portfolio in Poland. Green Giraffe is pleased to announce the successful closing of the sale of a portfolio of four offshore wind projects with a total generation capacity of more than 1.5 GW to RWE Renewables. The projects, which are in different development stages, are all located around the Słupsk bank in the central Polish Baltic Sea. RWE Renewables acquired the respective project companies from private owners and developers with the intention to continue the development and to build & operate the projects. As development partner Green Giraffe was responsible for the commercial development of the projects since 2017 and defined and executed the divestment strategy as exclusive financial advisors to the owners. We are proud of having been able to make a sizable contribution to the development of the offshore wind sector in Poland. We wish RWE Renewables and the project team all the best with the realisation of the projects in the Polish Baltic Sea.