Financing and Investment Trends: Subtittle If Needed. If Not MONTH 2018
Financing and Investment Trends: Subtittle If Needed. If Not MONTH 2018
Financing and Investment Trends: Subtittle If Needed. If Not MONTH 2018
Financing and
investment trends
The European wind industry in 2019
Financing and
investment trends
The European wind industry in 2019
Published April 2020
windeurope.org
This report summarises financing activity in the European wind sector from 1 January 2019 to 31
December 2019. Unless stated otherwise this includes the then 28 EU Member States and the following
countries: Belarus, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and
Ukraine.
It includes investment figures for the construction of new wind farms, refinancing transactions for wind
farms under construction or operation, project acquisition activity, company acquisitions and capital
market financing. Rounding of figures is at the discretion of the author.
New asset figures pre-2019 have been restated from previous publications.
DISCLAIMER
This publication contains information from external data providers. Neither WindEurope, nor its
members, nor their related entities are, by means of this publication, rendering professional advice or
services. Neither WindEurope nor its members shall be responsible for any loss whatsoever sustained
by any person who relies on this publication.
MORE INFORMATION:
policy@windeurope.org
+32 2 213 18 68
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................. 7
ANNEX: GLOSSARY.......................................................................................................... 45
6 Financing and investment trends – The European wind industry in 2019
WindEurope
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
In 2019 the wind energy industry invested €52bn in Eu- proven technology attracting a wide variety of investors.
rope, €19bn of which was for the financing of new wind Cost-competitiveness and reduced risk perceptions in off-
energy projects. The remaining €33bn included invest- shore wind have attracted domestic and international in-
ments in new assets, refinancing transactions, mergers vestors looking to diversify their portfolios and align with
and acquisitions at project and corporate level, public their sustainability targets.
market transactions and raised private equity.
Wind energy projects make an attractive investment and
Investments in new onshore wind farms alone were in the long-term there should be plenty of capital avail-
€13.1bn which will finance the construction of 10.3 GW able to finance them. In the short-term the global eco-
of new projects. This was the second highest capacity fi- nomic situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is
nanced in a year on record. uncertain and delays to the financing of new farms are
inevitable. It is important that EU and national economic
Governments and policy makers see the technology as recovery plans are aligned with the European Green Deal
a major driver to transition from fossil fuels and con- and as far as possible limit any delay to the transition to a
ventional power assets. Onshore wind is a mature and low-carbon society.
FIGURE 1
European wind energy investments in 2019 per asset class (€bn)
€ 0.9bn € 4.2bn
€ 17.5bn
€ 10.2bn € 51.8bn
€ 19.0bn
• Europe raised a total of €51.8bn for the construction • Spain financed the most wind energy in 2019, both in
of new wind farms, refinancing operations, project terms of capacity financed and amount invested. 28
and company acquisitions as well as public market onshore projects reached final investment decision
fundraising. (FID) with an average investment of €1m per MW.
• Total investments in wind energy were comparable • Northern and Western Europe still hold the bulk
with the previous 3 years. However, 2019 saw of new investments with €11.5bn, 60% of the total
approximately €5bn less investment than 2018. capital raised for the construction of new wind farms
in Europe.
• €19bn was raised for the construction of new wind
farms in Europe, 24% less than in 2018. • France saw its first FID for an offshore wind project
for the 480 MW Saint Nazaire offshore wind farm.
• New capacity financed (11.7 GW) was also
comparable with recent years, but significantly less • Germany overtook the UK to have the greatest
than the record 16 GW financed in 2018. project acquisition volumes in 2019 with €4.9bn
changing hands (1.7 GW). 90% of the investment
• Investment in new onshore wind projects were solid was in offshore wind. The UK was the second largest
with €13.1bn, 68% of the total investments in wind market for project acquisitions with €3.8bn (1.2
power in Europe and the second highest capacity GW) of transactions taking place (68% offshore wind
financed in a year with 10.3 GW. projects).
• Investments in new offshore wind farms totalled • Investments in South East Europe (SEE) remain low.
€6.1bn (including €0.5bn floating offshore). This was With a total of €0.6bn, the SEE region represents only
the lowest amount invested and capacity financed in 3% of the total new assets financed in Europe, down
a year since 2012. from 4% in 2018 and 16% in 2017.
• Banks extended €20.3bn in non-recourse debt for • In the short-term uncertainties from the global
the construction and refinancing of wind farms, COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lead to reduced
continuing the high level of activity seen since 2016. liquidity in debt markets as lenders focus on
managing their liquidity and will be less keen to lend
• Non-recourse debt accounted for 49% of all more capital.
investment in new onshore and 77% of all investment
in new offshore wind farms, highlighting the • Debt remains instrumental in wind energy financing
importance of banks in wind energy financing. with non-recourse debt providing 58% of all capital
raised for new wind energy projects.
• Wind energy was the largest investment opportunity
in the power sector in Europe. • 2019 was a record year for the refinancing of onshore
wind farms with €6.1bn of activity. Overall, 2019 saw
the second highest amount of refinancing activity
(after 2018).
• 71% of the capital raised for new wind energy • The sustainable finance framework is being
projects was on a project finance basis from developed to reorient capital flows towards
approximately half of the projects reaching FID in sustainable activities and investments.
2019.
• The two-sided Contract for Difference (CfD) provides
• Interest rate premiums continue to fall for offshore revenue stabilisation, attracting cheaper financing
wind financing. and facilitating the build-out of renewable power at
the lowest cost to society.
Policy highlights
Investment Outlook
• The European Green Deal will add some concrete
measures (i.e. legislation and funding) behind • Interest rates are set to remain low in 2020. Under
Europe’s ambition to become the first carbon-neutral normal circumstances, this would mean it is a good
continent by 2050. time to borrow for long-term investments. The
depth of the economic fall-out from the COVID-19
• The European Climate Law will enshrine carbon pandemic will determine how quickly markets return
neutrality by 2050 into law. to some sort of normality.
• The Sustainable Europe Investment Plan, the • Global economic growth is likely to be weak due to
investment pillar of the Green Deal, will aim to uncertainties arising from COVID-19 and international
mobilise at least €1tn of public and private capital trade wars, in particular.
over the next decade.
• In the longer term, growing merchant risk exposure
• The European Investment Bank (EIB) is set to become in wind power projects will likely change the
Europe’s Climate Bank, ending financing for all landscape and investor profiles in wind energy
unabated fossil fuels from 2021 and committing 50% financing.
of its financing to climate action and sustainability by
2025.
Debt-to-equity ratios in a project finance transaction may Unlike utilities, independent power producers with small-
vary considerably depending on the project specifics, er balance sheets and those companies whose primary
availability of capital and risk profile of the project own- business is not wind energy have better project finance
ers. For wind projects they range between 70-80% debt capabilities. In a project finance structure, partnerships
and 20-30% equity. are key from a very early stage. Fundraising will occur at
project level, through debt and equity vehicles alike. Pro-
A company’s capital structure will be determined by its ject owners will need to form consortia to provide the
particular risk profile, size and industry sector. Power pro- required equity whereas lenders will come together to
ducers and utilities with a large balance sheet will opt for a provide syndicated project loans on the debt side.
corporate finance structure and bring the project through
construction as a single player. Fundraising will occur at
corporate level through debt and equity vehicles alike.
FIGURE 2
Corporate Finance vs. Project Finance
CORPORATE PROJECT
FINANCING FINANCING
SPECIAL
PROJECT PURPOSE
SPONSOR VEHICLE (SPV)
INVESTMENT
CASH FLOWS
WIND ENERGY WIND ENERGY
PROJECT PROJECT
FINANCING
ANALYSIS
CORPORATE PROJECT
FINANCE FINANCE
Source: WindEurope
Raising debt and equity Capital availability for wind power projects
The project owners and sponsors can raise capital for The financial markets have supported the growth of the
project development from different sources. These may wind sector with a strong liquidity on both debt and eq-
include own-balance sheet financing, external private in- uity. The financing conditions of low interest rates, cost
vestors, funding from commercial banks and public cap- improvements and further trust gained in the technology
ital markets. The latter in particular has become more have all contributed to a healthy deal flow of projects.
prominent for raising both debt and equity in wind energy
financing. Debt liquidity has been available from construction phase
with new financing and refinancing transactions in major
Debt is usually raised through the issuance of bonds ei- markets. Lenders include a variety of bank and non-bank
ther at corporate or project level. Where a bond is issued institutions such as Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Mul-
at corporate level, the proceedings go for the financing tilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and other Interna-
of a portfolio of projects. The bond can carry the ‘green’ tional Financial Institutions (IFIs) have also provided debt
label when the portfolio of projects it is financing is made liquidity where commercial bank financing has not been
exclusively of renewable energy investments. Where the available. International banks have also strengthened
bond is issued at project level, the proceedings are used their presence in the European wind sector and intro-
for the specific renewable energy project and are there- duced more competition to the sector. Japanese banks,
fore ‘green’. Project bonds are issued on behalf of the SPV driven by a prolonged low-interest-rate environment in
and are usually part of a non-recourse, project finance their domestic market, feature predominantly in the top
structure. lending institutions for European wind power projects.
A bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is On the equity side, institutional investors are also bidding
a minimum of BBB- by Standard & Poor’s or a minimum of more aggressively for wind assets. Interest in the technol-
Baa3 by Moody’s. Investment grade bonds are considered ogy has picked up significantly from both institutional and
by rating agencies as likely to meet payment obligations strategic investors who are now looking at wind projects
for investors. for steady, predictable returns to meet long-dated liabil-
ities. Much like with the banks, investor appetite for the
technology applies to both greenfield and existing assets.
However, as confidence grows in the sector and a positive
track record continues, investors are also targeting more
greenfield projects earlier in the construction phase.
SUMMARY
• Capital can be raised with equity (issuing company shares) or debt (bonds issued by the company), the
proceeds of which can be used to develop a wind farm
• Projects can also be made into a “company” in their own right with a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) structure –
project finance
• Capital can be raised with equity (issuing shares in the project) or debt (banks lend to the project on a non-
recourse basis), the proceeds of which can be used to develop the wind farm
• Debt is repaid from project revenues. If the project fails to repay the debt, banks do not have recourse to the
project sponsors’ assets for compensation, only the assets of the project itself
FIGURE 3
Example of financing structure for typical offshore wind farm
ADVISORS
Financial, legal
& technical
debt
repayment equity
payment for
contractors
CONSTRUCTION OFFTAKER
Van Oord Vattenfall
ADVISORS
Financial, legal
& technical
FIGURE 4
Total wind energy investments in Europe 2010 – 2019 (€bn)
70
60
50
40
€bn
30
20
10
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Wind energy saw €51.8bn in financing activity in 2019. wind project acquisitions (by value) than all other years
This represents an 18% decrease from 2018. With €19bn on record.
of investments, new asset financing remains the biggest
category within wind energy investments. Project acquisi- Sector maturity and technology competitiveness have
tions totalled €17.5bn. brought in more investors as equity partners in projects,
particularly from the financial services industry.
New asset financing for wind power projects was 30%
lower than 2018, when almost €25bn of new assets were With €0.9bn, company acquisition deals were lower in
financed. Offshore wind farms reaching final investment value than the previous 5 years perhaps signalling a slow-
decision (FID) in 2019 required a relatively high capital ex- down in the consolidation phase the wind energy industry
penditure (“CAPEX”) leading to a slightly lower capacity has experienced in recent years across the supply chain.
financed compared with the previous 3 years.
Companies continue to make use of the low interest rate
Project acquisitions, where investors purchase (a share environment and liquidity in the financial markets by rais-
of) a wind energy project, were also down from €18.9bn ing debt and equity via capital markets, raising €4.2bn in
in 2018 to €17.5bn in investment activity in 2019, a 6% 2019, a 27% increase on 2018. 90% of the capital raised
decrease. However, 2018 and 2019 saw significantly more was in the form of green bonds.
FIGURE 5
New asset finance in wind energy 2010 – 2019 (GW and €bn)1
50 18
16.0
45 16
40
12.6 14
10.4 12.5
30 10.3 11.7
9.7
10
25 8.2
7.6 20.0 8
20 13.2 10.2
9.1 7.4
6.1 6.0 6
15
8.5 7.4
2.7 4
10
14.4 13.6 14.9 14.7 13.1
13.2 10.9 12.7 2
5 9.5 9.8
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Offshore new assets financed (€bn)
Onshore new assets financed (€bn)
New capacity financed (GW)
Source: WindEurope
1. Analysis of the history of installed capacity in Europe indicates that a number of FIDs are not made public and new asset investment
figures are likely to be understated
Investments in new assets were at their lowest level since tively)2 but significantly lower than the record 16 GW of
2013. Onshore wind financing was fairly solid at €13.1bn, projects reaching FID in Europe in 2018. There were FIDs
seeing the second most onshore capacity financed in a for 132 new projects in 25 countries, 128 of which were
year (10.3 GW). Offshore wind new asset financing was for onshore wind farms.
down over 40% on 2018, for 4 projects amounting to just
1.4 GW, the lowest capacity since 2012. However, given €3.9bn (21% of the total €19bn of investments in new
the small number of (relatively larger) offshore projects, assets) were in non-EU countries with an average capital
financing amounts can be volatile year-on-year. expenditure for onshore wind of €1.4m per MW financed,
only slightly more than EU countries which averaged
New capacity financed in 2019 totalled 11.7 GW, compa- €1.3m per MW.
rable with 2016 and 2017 (12.6 GW and 12.5 GW respec-
FIGURE 6
New asset finance in wind energy per technology 2010-2019 (€bn)
GW
€bn
10 9.5 9.8 10
11.7 10.3
10.1
8.6 8.4 7.3 7.3
5 7.0 6.8 6.4 5
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
15 15
13.2
€bn
GW
10.2
10 8.5 9.1 10
7.4 7.4
6.1 5.3 6.0
4.3
5 3.0 5
2.8 2.6 2.7 1.9 2.0 2.4 1.4
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2. Investment and capacity financed figures pre 2019 have been restated
Onshore wind saw 128 projects reaching FID with an In offshore wind, investments in new projects were the
average capacity of 80 MW, fewer than the 161 onshore lowest since 2012 at €6bn, less than one-third of the re-
FIDs (average 73 MW) in 2018. cord €20bn4 seen in 2016. However, since offshore wind
projects are fewer and generally larger than onshore, in-
Investments in new onshore wind farms in Germany were vestment statistics can be volatile and therefore emerging
down from €0.8bn for 23 new wind farms in 2018 to just trends should be treated with a degree of caution.
€0.3bn for 8 wind farms in 2019, and from €2bn – €3.5bn
between 2013 and 2017. Problems with the permitting Capacity financed was lower than previous years as cost
procedure for new projects in recent years have resulted reduction trends reversed in 2019 and projects were fi-
in a slowing market, but there are signs that the German nanced with higher CAPEX than has typically been the
government is taking steps to resolve this3. case in recent years.
FIGURE 7
Capital expenditure per MW financed in wind energy 2015-2019 (€m/MW)
5
4.5
CAPEX per MW ( €m/MW)
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
3. For detailed information on the German market and permitting situation, see the latest National Policy and Regulatory Developments
report (for members only)
4. Updated new asset financing figure
Capital expenditure per MW for new onshore assets fell That being told, the higher CAPEX of Hywind Tampen does
from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, capital expenditure was on not significantly influence in the average CAPEX per MW
average €1.3m per MW, the same as in 2018. for offshore wind farms considering its relatively low ca-
pacity compared with the other 2 offshore wind farms fi-
Spain accounted for over 20% of all onshore FIDs with 28 nanced in 2019. The 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore
new projects, at an average CAPEX of €1m per MW. The wind farm in Scotland and the 480 MW Saint Nazaire off-
CAPEX seen in Spanish projects is lower than the average. shore wind farm, the first to reach FID in France, were also
Besides the good wind conditions and the strong domes- both financed at over €5m per MW.
tic supply chain, there was a large pipeline of projects un-
der development waiting for a financing opportunity since Neart na Gaoithe is set in the Firth of Forth. With an av-
2013, when the government withdrew any support to the erage water depth of over 50m, the foundations will be
sector - until auctions resumed in 2016. jackets, which tend to have higher associated costs than
monopiles, possibly a factor in the higher than average
Capital expenditure per MW for new offshore wind CAPEX for the wind farm. Neart na Goithe received sup-
farms also decreased between 2015 and 2018. Howev- port at the 2015 auction round in the UK and it has been
er, 2019 saw a reversal of that trend. 3 of the 4 projects financed at €5.1m per MW, including transmissions infra-
reaching FID were financed with a CAPEX of €5m per MW structure to shore.
or more, unusually high compared with other projects
reaching FID in recent years. Saint Nazaire is the first commercial offshore wind farm
in France and was financed at €5.0m per MW. The de-
One of these projects was Hywind Tampen, an 88 MW sign of the tender which was launched in 2011 specified
floating offshore wind farm. Given this new technology is that wind turbine factories for the project had to be built
currently in the pre-commercial phase, higher CAPEX than on French territory (resulting in higher capital expendi-
bottom-fixed technology is expected. An understanding of ture for the project). We expect to see the same higher
the risks involved is essential for lenders to price risk cor- CAPEX in other French wind farms winning in the same
rectly and as experience grows, financing costs are like- tender (for example Fécamp and Courseulles-sur-Mer). In
ly to come down (at the time of writing there has been addition, the authorisation procedure for the project did
no non-recourse debt issued for floating wind) which will not allow the developer to use the most recent turbines,
likely attract more investment. As the technology ma- preventing savings from technological developments (al-
tures, more investors should be attracted allowing further though this procedure has now been modified and other
build-out and established supply chains and economies wind farms should not be so restricted). Finally, the nature
of scale should provide the CAPEX reductions witnessed of the seabed, which is particularly hard, means that in-
in bottom-fixed offshore. On top of this, the sector is lev- stallation time is expected to be longer than average.
eraging the relevant experience and established supply
chains with bottom-fixed turbines, as well as those from The reasons for higher capital expenditures are specific to
the oil and gas sector with years of experience manag- the site of the projects and (with the exception of those
ing floating structures. We therefore expect floating wind wind farms mentioned above) we might expect in future
costs (financing and capital expenditure) to reduce at a years to see offshore wind CAPEX revert to levels seen in
faster rate. recent years.
New wind energy investments in 2019 took place in 25 and there has been an unhealthy concentration of new
countries. The top three investor countries owned 43% installations in recent years. There continues to be a sig-
of FID announcements in 2019 and 2018, compared with nificant number of countries in Europe which are not at-
64% in 2017 and 73% in 2016. However, different Euro- tracting investment and have no new installations.
pean wind energy markets are maturing at different rates
FIGURE 8
New asset finance in wind energy per country in 2019 (€bn and GW)
3 3
2 2
1.5 1.5
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
s
n
S ce
er n
Tu s
No ne
Fi ia
Ire d
Gr d
Ge ce
Po ovo
al
Uk ey
Po y
nm y
Ko k
Fr K
Ru d
er
nd
ar
a
an
l
ai
th de
an
n
U
Ita
n
ss
ug
an
ee
rk
i
rw
la
ra
la
th
Sp
la
s
rm
Ne we
nl
rt
O
De
Source: WindEurope
Spain was the biggest investor in 2019 with €2.8bn of in- Investor confidence has been slow in recovering mainly
vestments in the onshore wind sector representing 15% due to macroeconomic and political factors. With a total
of total financing activity for the construction of new on- of just €0.6bn, a reduction in investments for the second
shore and offshore wind farms in Europe. year running, the SEE region represents only 3% of the
total new assets financed in Europe.
Northern and Western Europe still holds the bulk of new
investments with over 60% of the capital raised for new However, other markets are picking up. Clearly the po-
wind farms in Europe (€11.5bn). The UK, France and Swe- tential in the Spanish wind energy sector is bearing fruit
den saw investments in new wind farms totalling more with almost a quarter of the capacity financed in Europe in
than €2bn and the Netherlands over €1.5bn. 2019. Poland also saw an impressive amount of new asset
financing with €0.8bn financing 630 MW of new onshore
In many EU markets there are currently no wind invest- wind at €1.3m per MW (the average for onshore wind in
ments, despite these countries having significant poten- Europe). Spain and Poland are likely to be strong markets
tial for further expansion of wind power. National energy in future years. The Spanish draft National Energy and Cli-
policies and lack of a stable regulatory environment have mate Plan (detailing a Member State’s plans to decarbonise
affected both the level of investment and financial com- their economies) is targeting a capacity of 50 GW onshore
mitments in half of EU Member States. This is the case in by 2050 with auctions of 2 GW annually between 2021 and
South East Europe (SEE), where Investments remain low. 2030. Poland held an auction for 2.2 GW for onshore wind
in 2019 with a further 2 auctions planned for 2020.
Of the €19bn investment in new projects, €3.9bn (21%) with €1.1bn, followed by Ukraine with €1bn and Norway
were in non-EU countries: Turkey, Ukraine, Norway, Rus- at €0.8bn.
sia, Montenegro, Belarus and Switzerland. This is down
from €5.2bn in 2018 but remains the same proportion Onshore wind capital expenditure for these countries av-
of overall financing of new wind energy projects at 21%. eraged €1.4m per MW financed, slightly more than EU
Turkey had the most investment in the non-EU countries countries which averaged €1.3m per MW.
FIGURE 9
Share of wind in new utility-scale renewable power capacity investments in Europe 2010-2019
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
In 2019 wind energy again represented around two-thirds In our analysis we have included only investment in
of renewable energy investments in new utility-scale new power generation capacity and not in energy
power generation capacity (i.e. this does not include in- infrastructure.
vestments in solar rooftop capacity). Onshore wind alone
accounted for 46% of the market.
FIGURE 10
Onshore wind corporate and project financing 2010-2019 (€bn)
15
6.0
7.7
10 8.4 5.6
7.2 8.9
€bn
7.4
6.0
5.4
6.9
5
8.6
7.2 7.5
6.0 6.0 5.3
4.2 4.9 4.7
2.9
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
Investments in onshore wind projects are traditionally projects since a number of sponsors can own the project
evenly divided between corporate and project finance. in a Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) structure and debt is
Corporate financed projects are financed on the spon- lent by banks to the project rather than the sponsors (the
sor’s balance sheet, meaning they raise the capital them- lenders do not have recourse to the sponsors’ assets).
selves – typically by raising corporate debt, issuing shares
or using working capital. Because project management Final investment decisions totalling €7.5bn or 57% of on-
and contractual obligations are internalised, the process shore wind projects were financed on a project finance
of raising capital is more straightforward than project fi- basis in 2019 and these projects had an average capacity
nance and can be more efficient in terms of time and cost. of 98 MW. Corporate financing of onshore projects to-
Project financing facilitates the development of larger talled €5.6bn with an average capacity of 68 MW.
FIGURE 11
Onshore new asset project finance debt and equity 2010-2019 (€bn)
10
8.6
7.2 7.5
7.5
6.0 6.0
5.3
4.2 4.9 4.7
€bn
5
2.9
2.5
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
Debt typically provides lower returns than equity since in Traditionally projects have been supported by national
the event of bankruptcy it is repaid before equity and is government support schemes, often providing a fixed
therefore a lower risk investment. From a project spon- price for electricity produced once connected to the grid.
sor’s point of view this means that raising debt is a cheap- This has offered revenue stability for those projects and
er method of financing than equity financing (particularly allowed developers to secure high debt ratios and cheap
in the low interest rate environment). More mature tech- financing. Support schemes in Europe have now changed
nologies are able to raise more debt capital because banks from fixed tariffs to market-based schemes (see section
understand and can price risk and a proven track record of 3.4 on revenue stabilisation).
successful projects increases confidence.
WindEurope is monitoring how changes in support are
Since around 2013, capital raised for new onshore wind affecting debt ratios and how this may affect the cost of
farms on a project finance basis has been around 90%, financing. Look out for updates in our future reports
illustrating that banks are comfortable with extending
loans for the majority of the wind farm capital expendi-
ture. This suggests that the technology is mature and rep-
resents a safe investment.
FIGURE 12
Offshore wind corporate and project financing 2010-2019 (€bn)
20
4.2
15
0.2
10
€bn
1.4
1.3 15.8
3.0 1.4 13.0 0.3
5 1.0
7.8 8.8
6.1 7.0 6.0
5.1 5.5
2.7
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Project financing: new assets (offshore)
Corporate financing: new assets (offshore)
Source: WindEurope
Investments in offshore wind projects are traditional- Final investment decisions totalling €6bn of offshore wind
ly dominated by project finance because offshore wind projects were 100% financed on a project finance basis
farms tend to be very large and there are limited numbers in 2019. Projects reaching FID had an average capacity of
of developers able to finance the high capital require- 350 MW, similar to the 357 MW in 2018 and significantly
ments on their balance sheets. larger than onshore wind projects.
FIGURE 13
Offshore new asset project finance debt and equity 2010-2019 (€bn)
20
15.8
15 13.0
€bn
10 8.8
7.8 7.0
6.1 6.0
5.1 5.5
5
2.7
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
As discussed in the previous section, mature technologies Recent years have seen a lower proportion of equi-
are able to raise more debt capital and more efficiently ty financing in offshore wind energy project finance,
finance projects. demonstrating increased confidence in the technology.
In particular since 2016, project finance debt ratios have
increased from around 60% to between 80% and 90%.
FIGURE 14
Non-recourse debt, new assets and refinancing 2010-2019 (€bn)
30
26.6
25
21.5 20.3
20
16.7
€bn
15 12.7
11.3
10 8.6 7.9 7.8
7.1
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
There has been overall growth in debt financing since jects. During this period the wind project is not producing
2012. Emerging new business and ownership models have any revenue. Additionally, there are risks such as losses
diversified the pool of investors in wind energy and un- from accidents or delays in construction (by bad weather,
locked the potential for long-term sources of finance from for example). Once the wind farm has been commissioned,
banks, institutional lenders and Export Credit Agencies the risks of construction are transferred to operation.
(ECAs). This has led to a significant amount of affordable
debt, in particular in the form of non-recourse financing. Since there are fewer potential losses and risks for op-
erational wind farms, these can attract better interest
When a wind energy project is commissioned, its risk rates. The restructuring of debt in this way is known as
profile changes significantly. The risks present during con- refinancing.
struction are replaced by operational risks. This impacts
the probability of repaying lenders. In addition, lenders In 2019 €20.3bn in non-recourse debt was raised: €11bn
specialise in pricing risks at various stages of the develop- for the construction of new projects and €9.3bn for the
ment of a project. It is therefore common for a project to refinancing activities of wind farms. The proportion of
restructure its debts upon completion. non-recourse debt extended for the refinancing of wind
farms has increased steadily over the last 5 years from
For example, banks might provide debt to cover the con- around 20% in 2015 to 46% of total non-recourse debt
struction of the wind farm, which typically takes 1-2 years extended in 2019.
for onshore projects and 2-3 years for offshore wind pro-
20
FIGURE 15
Non-recourse financing debt in onshore wind projects 2010-2019 (€bn)
15
11.5
10.2
10 9.1 8.4
€bn
6.3 6.1
5.5 5.5 5.3
5 4.0
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Non-recourse debt extended for the financing of new on- course debt was lent for onshore wind, including €5.2bn
shore wind farms and refinancing has in general been in- for refinancing, also a record.
creasing since 2011. In 2019, a record €11.5bn of non-re-
FIGURE 16
Non-recourse debt financing in offshore wind projects 2010-2019 (€bn)
20
16.4
15
12.4
8.4 8.8
10
7.3
€bn
5.2
5 3.9
2.3 2.3
1.6
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
The recent overall growth in non-recourse debt has been Debt financing conditions continue to be favourable with
driven by the offshore market, which saw a record €16.4bn low interest rates and plenty of lenders and, as the mar-
extended in 2018 and €8.8bn in 2019. For the first year ket matures, developers are taking advantage to refinance
since 2012, there was less non-recourse debt raised for their loans. This, and the completion of large offshore pro-
offshore wind than onshore wind. This is a result of both jects since 2016 such as the London Array (630 MW), Race
lower investments and refinancing in offshore wind in Bank (573 MW), Galloper (353 MW) and Dudgeon (402
2019 and the record amount of non-recourse debt raised MW), has led to the development of the refinancing of
for the financing and refinancing of onshore wind farms. the offshore wind market in recent years.
FIGURE 17
Share of non-recourse debt in new asset finance 2015-2019
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
Lending from banks on a project finance basis has been The importance of non-recourse debt continues to grow
critical to the development and build-out of wind ener- and now accounts for around 50% of all capital raised for
gy projects. Larger projects are able to take advantage of new onshore projects and almost 80% for offshore.
economies of scale to produce wind farms with historical-
ly low capital expenditure and higher proportions of debt As mentioned previously, it is essential that government
have allowed lower financing costs, resulting in cheaper support schemes recognise the importance of stable and
renewable energy for society. predictable revenues (through appropriate market-based
support schemes) for the continued high levels of non-re-
course debt and low financing costs of wind energy
projects.
FIGURE 18
Interest rates for offshore projects: basis points above LIBOR per MW financed 2010-2019
400
350
Basis points above LIBOR
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Source: WindEurope
The debt markets have supported construction activity on Figure 18 suggests that offshore wind farms in Belgium
attractive terms. Transactions in 2019 continued to reflect have been able to achieve lower risk premiums earlier
the general trend of easing loan terms when it comes to than other countries in the sample. However, it should be
pricing, maturity and tranche. The low interest rate envi- noted that the data sample is very small and so has very
ronment has provided wind energy projects with compet- little (if any) statistical significance.
itive financing and lower financing costs. Larger projects
are now able to fundraise under more favourable market Over 76 lenders were active in 2019, up from 67 in 2018,
conditions. The risk premium charged by lenders has been including multilateral financial institutions, export credit
consistently falling as the offshore wind market matures agencies and commercial banks. As confidence grows in
and lenders become more comfortable with the risks. the European wind sector, international banks continue to
strengthen their presence in the market.
FIGURE 19
Market share of banks in wind energy financing in 2019
76
CaixaBank
5.1%
Source: WindEurope
FIGURE 20
Green bond issuances 2014-2019 (€bn)
25
20
2.9
15 3.6
(€bn)
1.1
10
17.0
13.9
5 3.6 11.1
4.2 5.4
3.5
0
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Corporates Projects
Source: WindEurope
FIGURE 21 32% of the green bond issuances in 2019 came from com-
Green bond issuances in 2019 by technology panies exlusively operating in the wind industry, either
through project or corporate bonds (for those companies
operating uniquely in the wind energy sector).
Corporate RES
portfolio
€8.1bn; 67% Transmission
lines
€1.9bn; 16%
Source: WindEurope
FIGURE 22
Project acquisitions by country in 2019 (€bn)
4
(€bn)
3
4.4 2.6
2
1 2.1 2.3
1.2 0.5
0.9 0.8 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1
0.5 0.4 0.5
0
y
UK
en
nd
ay
ly
al
nd
rs
ar
an
c
ai
an
Ita
he
an
rw
ed
la
la
Sp
rtu
nm
rm
nl
Ot
Po
Ire
Fr
Sw
No
Fi
Po
De
Ge
Source: WindEurope
Project acquisition activity in 2019 totalled €17.5bn, In terms of the capacity of projects acquired, 14.9 GW of
slightly less the €19.6bn changing hands in 2018 but still projects were acquired, 6% less than the 15.9 GW (including
significantly more than the years before 2018. The Ger- projects in the pre-development phase) acquired in 2018.
man market saw the most acquisition activity in mone-
tary terms as (shares of) some large offshore wind farms €2.6bn was paid for 6.3 GW of projects in the pre-devel-
changed owners, including Gode 1 (330 MW), Veja Mate opment or development stage, €3.9bn for 3.2 GW of pro-
(402 MW) and BARD 1 (400 MW). jects in the construction phase and €10.4bn was paid for
5.6 GW of operational wind farms.
FIGURE 23
Project acquisition activity by project phase (€bn)
2018 2019
10
8 1.8
5.5
5.5
(€bn)
6
4.9
5.8
4
3.1 2.1
2 1.8
1.5 1.6 1.9
0 0.7
Onshore Offshore Onshore Offshore
Source: WindEurope
In both 2018 and 2019, acquisitions amounts were low- set managers, pension funds, etc.) which have typically
er in offshore wind than onshore wind which had many invested in operational wind assets (where risks are well
more transactions (around 80% of the transactions were understood and returns tend to be stable over long-time
for onshore wind farms). horizons) acquired the largest proportion of wind farms.
In 2019 operational wind farms were subject of the ma- Power producers acquired around half of project capacity
jority of transactions. Institutional investors (banks, as- in the pre-development and development stage.
FIGURE 24
Project acquisition activity by type of investor in 2019 (€bn, %)
100%
2018 2019
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Onshore Offshore Onshore Offshore
Source: WindEurope
5. BayWa r.e. Energy Report 2019, published in partnership with the RE-Source Platform.
Available here: https://www.baywa-re.de/en/energy-report-2019/
FIGURE 25
Renewable energy corporate sourcing through PPAs (GW)
3.0
2.5
2.0
Annual volume GW
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: WindEurope
There are different models of corporate engagement. The sure debt repayment obligations are met. As such, they
most important that have been used in wind energy can tend to prefer lower revenues over a long period of time
be broadly summarised in two segments: investing direct- – matching the loan term – rather than higher but uncer-
ly in projects and owning the underlying asset, or acting as tain revenues.
an off-taker through PPAs.
Therefore, as the Feed-in Tariff support schemes across
From a corporate’s perspective, acting as an off-taker European countries are no longer available, countries
is a feasible model to control costs over long periods of with market-based schemes will likely see the volume of
time (at times up to 20 years), diversify energy sources corporate renewable PPAs increase in the near future. El-
and meet sustainability targets. Owning the asset may ements of merchant financing that are starting to emerge
come with certain cost-of-capital implications for corpo- in the wind sector will require some form of additional
rates. This is not only due to the large pay-back period for revenue stabilisation through support schemes, corporate
wind energy projects, but also due to increasing competi- renewable PPAs, and other hedging instruments.
tion for ownership in wind energy assets. Corporates not
operating in the wind sector might find it challenging to Corporate renewable PPAs until recently have been limit-
execute renewable contracts at better prices when com- ed to a handful of countries. Since 2017, there have been
pared to power producers or other businesses with more corporate PPAs signed in 6 additional countries for the first
experience. time: Poland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy and France.
Corporate renewable PPAs also come with certain ben- The new Renewable Energy Directive mandates Member
efits for generators. Price visibility over a long period of States to identify and remove administrative barriers to
time and a guaranteed off-taker are important to lower corporate PPAs and facilitate their uptake in their National
the cost of debt financing. Lenders would typically need Energy and Climate Plans which set out their Climate &
downside protection (a floor) in project revenues to en- Energy policies from 2021 to 2030.
This, coupled with developers’ need for revenue stabilisa- viding the impetus for growth in corporate PPAs in terms
tion (with the phase out of Feed-in-Tariffs) and a growing of contracted volumes, geographical coverage and num-
demand for renewable electricity from corporates, is pro- bers of deals.
FIGURE 26
Number of corporate renewable PPAs by country and year 2013-2019
50 120
108
45
100
35
80
30
61
25 60
20 43
35 40
15
21
10
10 20
5 3
0 0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Italy Poland Germany Denmark Norway Spain UK
Belgium Ireland France Finland Netherlands Sweden
Source: WindEurope
47 corporate PPAs were signed in 2019 alone, 44% of all contracting volumes from wind farms across Scotland and
corporate PPAs signed in Europe to date. This includes Wales. Covestro became the second chemicals company
the 793 MW contracted in Europe by Google (633 MW (after AzkoNovel) to sign a corporate PPA.
for wind energy) and the consortium of UK universities
FIGURE 27
Renewable energy corporate PPAs by sector (MW)
3,500
3,000
Capacity (MW)
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
-
ry
eu t
ng
on a
om ls
ks
n
ai
r
od
al
on stic
tr
iv
IC
io
ti
e
po
t
in
et
ki
ca sor
fu
us
us
tic
ot
co
ct
go
dr
an
s
ru
g
d
le
an
on
Lo
in
in
d
B
er
Te
st
ac
rb
an
Tr
ut
C
vy
er
m
A
su
at
od
ea
C
ar
on
Fo
H
Ph
Lo
C
Source: WindEurope
Demand for renewable electricity is coming from a wide have traditionally signed long-term PPAs with hydropower
variety of industrial sectors and recent years have seen and therefore have the in-house expertise and experience
a diversification in off-takers signing PPAs. Automotives, to be able to develop renewable PPAs with wind energy.
pharmaceuticals, logistics, water and consumer goods are
the latest sectors to join this group. Many of the ICT data centres are also based in the Nor-
dics where lower temperatures allow more efficient cool-
Heavy industry and ICT have contracted the majority of ing. Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Face-
corporate renewable PPAs in Europe. Aluminium smelters book have contracted over 1.7 GW of wind power in the
Norsk Hydro and Alcoa have contracted a cumulative wind Nordics.
energy capacity of 2.7 GW. Based in the Nordics, they
FIGURE 28
Corporates contracting renewable electricity via PPAs in Europe (MW)
Source: WindEurope
Dutch railways achieved their goal of covering all their BT Group have contracted a cumulative capacity of 256
trains’ power needs in the Netherlands with renewable MW in PPAs, 249 MW of which involves the power from
electricity by 2017. onshore wind farms in the UK.
FIGURE 29
Renewable energy corporate PPAs by country (MW)
Norway
Sweden
UK
Netherlands
Finland
Spain
Denmark
Ireland
Germany
France
Poland
Belgium
Italy
Source: WindEurope
The Nordic region, followed by the UK and the Nether- sufficient demand for green electricity from corporates
lands, are the biggest markets for such deals. What these and a lack of explicit regulatory barriers to sign corporate
markets have in common is a good track record in renew- renewable PPAs.
able energy development, coupled electricity markets,
In the immediate term, the new European Commission mate and energy goals, policies and measures required to
is assessing the final National and Energy and Climate meet climate and energy targets from 2021 to 2030. The
Plans (NECPs) that Member States were required to sub- NECPs will have to be updated in 2023 to integrate higher
mit by 2020. The NECPs form the framework outlining cli- climate ambitions and revised sectorial legislation.
The Sustainable Europe Investment Plan is the investment lise at least €1 trillion of sustainable investments from the
pillar of the European Green Deal and will aim to mobi- public and private sectors over the next decade.
FIGURE 30
The Sustainable Europe Investment Plan
At least 1 trillion
InvestEU
Private & public
investments
EU Budget
(503bn Euros for Invest EU EIB group InvestEU contribution
GUARANTEE towards climage and
climate & environment targets
environment)
National Mobilised
Promotional Banks
and IFIs investment
279bn Euros
Just Transition Mechanism
100bn Euros
(143bn over 10 years)
The numbers shown here are net of any overlaps between climage,
environmental and Just Transition Mechanism objectives.
The EU Budget will provide €503bn for climate and en- ing EU funding processes and making them more efficent
vironment spending between 2021 and 2030 triggering and flexible. Part of the structure will include the Invest-
additional national co-financing of €114bn. EU Guarantee which will help reduce risk in financing and
investment operations. The European Investment Bank
The InvestEU Programme builds on the Investment Plan (EIB) will implement 75% of InvestEU and provide techni-
for Europe, the Juncker Plan (mentioned below in the sec- cal support to projects under the InvestEU Advisory Hub.
tion 3.2), and aims to mobilise €279bn of private and pub-
lic investments in climate and environmentally sustaina- Finally the Just Transition Mechanism will help the regions
ble investments. It will also bring together a multitude of most heavily dependent on fossil fuels with the aim of leav-
EU financial instruments (including the European Fund ing no one behind. The mechanism will combine financing
for Strategic Investments) under one structure, simplify- from the EU budget, co-financing from Member States and
contributions from InvestEU and the EIB to reach approxi- the Green Deal. The Fund will be financed with reveunues
mately €143bn over the period from 2021-2030. from the auctioning of carbon allowances under the Emis-
sions Trading Scheme (ETS) and will provide at least €25bn
In addition to (and separate from) the EU budget, the In- for the development of climate mitigation technologies.
novation and Modernisation Fund will also contribute to
The EFSI is one of the three pillars of the Investment Plan for itive prices. Given its policy to fund energy innovation and
Europe (also known as the Juncker Plan), established by the renewables from 2021, we hope it will strongly support the
EIB Group (the EIB and the European Investment Fund) and development of floating offshore wind and unlock the po-
the European Commission in 2015 to revive investments tential of deeper waters and more challenging seabeds.
after years of stagnation in growth following the global fi-
nancial crisis in 2008.
FIGURE 31
The fund was designed to unlock additional investments of Wind energy funding from the European Fund for
Strategic Investments (EFSI)
at least €500bn by 2020, focusing (amongst other things) on
strategic infrastructure (digital, transport and energy).
Source: WindEurope
There is more and more awareness from society about 1. Substantially contribute to one of the 6 environmental
the importance of tackling climate change. The demand objectives:
for green or sustainable investments has been growing. a. Climate change mitigation
But there is currently no common definition of what con- b. Climate change adaption
stitutes sustainable activities or investments. c. Sustainable use and protection of water and
marine resources
The objective of the Taxonomy is to provide clarity and d. Transition to a circular economy, waste prevention
transparency on environmental sustainability to investors, and recycling
financial institutions and companies to enable informed e. Pollution prevention and control
decision-making and foster investments in environmen- f. Protection of healthy ecosystems
tally sustainable activities. 2. Do no significant harm to any of the objectives in 1
3. Comply with minimum social safeguards
The Taxonomy will not only apply to green sectors but will 4. Comply with quantitative or qualitative Technical
also set thresholds to enable the transition of polluting sec- Screening Criteria
tors. These thresholds will be built as much as possible on
existing market practices and will take into account the lat- Technical screening criteria allow precise and granular de-
est policy and technological developments and innovations. termination of which activities in a given economic sector
would qualify as sustainable.
For an economic activity to be on the list of sustainable
activities it must comply with 4 conditions:
The Action Plan for sustainable finance involves establish- Key recommendations are:
ing EU labels for green financial products. The Technical
Expert Group (TEG) published its recommendations for • Alignment with EU Taxonomy – proceeds of EU
the development of an EU Green Bond Standard in March Green Bonds should finance or refinance activities/
2019. The TEG proposes that the Commission creates a investments deemed sustainable under the
voluntary EU Green Bond standard to encourage market Taxonomy.
participants to issue and invest in EU green bonds.
• Publication of a Green Bond Framework – detailing • Mandatory verification – confirming conformity with
the scope and content for issuers to provide details the standard.
on the proposed use of proceeds, its green strategy
and processes at issuance. Any type of listed or unlisted bond or capital market debt
instrument issued that is aligned with the EU Green Bond
• Mandatory reporting – periodical reporting of use of Standard should be considered an EU Green Bond.
proceeds and environmental impacts.
The European Commission will decide on whether to ac-
cept the recommendations of the TEG.
A well-designed energy- and market-based revenue stabi- Under a two-sided CfD a strike price is agreed between
lisation mechanism such as the two-sided CfD is the best the developer and government (usually via a competitive
way to support renewable energy investors. These mech- auction). If the wholesale electricity price falls below the
anisms must strike the right balance between investors’ agreed strike price, the government will pay the differ-
need for certainty and lower costs for society. ence between the strike price and the wholesale elec-
tricity price to the developer. However, at times when the
wholesale electricity price is higher than the strike price,
the wind farm compensates the government.
FIGURE 32
Revenue stabilisation from two-sided CfD
60
Electricity price €/MWh
50
40
30
Electricity price Payment from generator
Strike price Payment from government
Source: WindEurope
The two-sided CfD does remove up-side potential (be- gies. Badly priced or aggressive bids could lead to strand-
cause the electricity price is capped) but also downside ed investments and higher financing costs.
risk by providing a price floor. This removes price uncer-
tainty for the generator and therefore reduces the varia- As mentioned in section 2.6, corporate PPAs can also pro-
bility in project revenues. The revenue certainty provided vide developers with long-term price visibility and this has
allows projects to attract cheap financing and provide re- likely led to the increase in the European PPA market in re-
newable electricity at a lower cost to society. cent years. However, currently the number of corporates
with a sufficient credit rating (and able to commit to such
It also has the advantage that participants in the bidding long-term energy contracts) is limited. Innovative contract
process do not have to forecast power prices years into structures and credit support will need to be developed to
the future. The need for long-term forecasts leads to the take full advantage of the corporate and industrial sectors’
so-called ‘winners curse’ by favouring those with the most potential for supporting renewable projects.
optimistic views of the world or aggressive bidding strate-
FIGURE 33
Investment outlook to 2022 (€bn)
50 20
18.1 18.1
45 16.8 16.8 16.9 18
Capacity financed (GW)
40 16
13.8 13.9
Investment (€bn)
Source: WindEurope
The UK is likely to continue to attract investments in off- ment is taking steps to address permitting issues which
shore wind, awarding 5.5 GW of support in 2019. With a would allow the market to rebound.
further 6 GW to be issued in 2021 there is a clear pipeline
of projects and support from the two-sided CfD. France and According to our projected wind installations and using
the Netherlands also look likely to grow their offshore mar- an average CAPEX per MW for new onshore and offshore
kets with a clear schedule of auctions in the coming years. wind projects, financing needs could approach €94bn
(including projects awarded support in 2019 yet to reach
While FIDs in Germany were a record low in 2019 (see Fig- FID) between 2020 and 2022. This would represent ap-
ure 8 New asset finance in wind energy per country, 2019 proximately 60 GW of new wind energy capacity.
(€bn and GW)), there are signs that the German govern-
COVID-19
The European wind industry is the global leader in the output is already visible in other countries. With COV-
wind turbine market, realising projects in more than 80 ID-19 we are likely to see delays in the development of
countries world-wide. As such, our companies rely on new wind farm projects which could lead to developers
both European and global supply chains for raw materials missing the deployment deadlines in countries’ auction
and components. The COVID-19 virus is impeding interna- systems. Governments will need to be flexible on how
tional trade, creating delays and uncertainties for differ- they apply their rules.
ent industrial sectors. As the number of infections rises,
the European wind industry is likely to be impacted. Figure 35 illustrates how a simple delay of 3 months in
construction of wind farms and in the financing of pro-
First analysis suggests that COVID-19 will have moderate jects by 2021 may affect the outlook, assuming the mar-
effects on international supply chains for wind energy. A ket fully recovers in 2020 and is able to compensate for
knock-on effect of a slowdown in China’s manufacturing the slow down in the following years.
FIGURE 34
Investment outlook to 2022 allowing for a 3-month delay from COVID-19
19.9
50 20
18.5
45 16.8 16.8 18
Capacity financed (GW)
40 16
13.8 13.9
Investment (€bn)
13.1 13.6
35 12.9 12.4 14
11.7
30 10.3 17.0 12
10.5 14.0
25 10
20.0
20 13.2 10.2 8
9.1 7.4
6.1 6.0 5.4
15 6
8.5 7.4
2.7
10 21.1 20.7 4
14.4 14.9 14.7 13.8
13.2 10.9 13.6 12.7 13.1
5 9.5 9.8 2
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Source: WindEurope
FINAL THOUGHTS
Financial markets will continue to support wind ener- While banks are used to dealing with portions of mer-
gy projects with similar loan pricing, maturity and other chant financing, institutional equity investors may find it
commercial terms. Given current international trade diffi- challenging to adapt to the new reality. This underscores
culties resulting from the trade war between the USA and the importance of financing solutions that capture the na-
China, Germany’s manufacturing and automotive decline ture of merchant risk and stabilise the revenue flows in
and Brexit, 2020 is unlikely to see strong economic growth. these projects.
With the additional slowdown likely to result from the
COVID-19 pandemic, it is very unlikely that central banks Europe’s wind energy sector is strategic for the EU econ-
will be increasing interest rates in 2020 (increasing inter- omy. Wind energy already meets 15% of Europe’s power
est rates helps control the rate of inflation arising from demand. However, Europe is not building enough wind
strong economic growth). Borrowing costs will therefore energy to deliver the European Commission’s Green Deal.
remain low, making it a good time to take on debt for long- Last year, installations were up 27% compared with 2018,
term investments. but the rate of installations needs to double to reach the
goals set out in the Green Deal. Revenue stabilisation from
In the longer term, wind asset owners will have to address government support schemes and other business models
the merchant element in wind power projects. Wind- such as corporate renewable PPAs will allow the sector to
Europe expects that by 2030 more than 25% of the wind support the transition at the lowest cost to society.
installed capacity will be fully exposed to market risk6.
6. WindEurope (2017), The value of hedging: New approaches to managing wind energy resource risk
• Capital markets: refers to activities that gather funds • Project bond: includes bonds issued at project level,
from the issuance of shares and bonds. the proceedings of which will be used to finance a
specific project.
• Venture capital and private equity (VC/PE): refers
to the provision of long-term equity financing to • Initial Public Offering (IPO): the very first sale of
emerging companies as a direct investment. stock issued by a company.
• Mergers and acquisitions: includes company merges • Corporate renewable power purchase agreement
and acquisitions as well as the acquisition of interest (PPA): a long term bilateral agreement for the
in onshore and offshore wind projects. purchase of power from a specific renewable energy
project, where the power off-taker is a corporate as
• Corporate finance / on–balance sheet financing: opposed to a power producer.
includes all investments in wind power generating
and transmission assets financed either through the • Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC): The
equity of project owners or through debt raised at WACC is calculated as weighted average of the cost of
corporate level. debt (the interest rate charged by lenders), the cost
of equity (compensation required by shareholders for
• Project finance / off–balance sheet financing: bearing risk of ownership) and the cost of any other
includes all investments in wind power generating category of capital (preferred stock, long-term debt
and transmission assets where the project debt and etc.). It represents the cost to a business of raising
equity used to finance the project are paid back from capital and is a measure used to assess whether to
the cash flow generated by the project (as opposed invest in a new project.
to the balance sheet of project owners). To this end,
projects are a spin-off as a separate entity.