EKF: Race for Investments into Wind Heating Up

A large number of international banks and investors have emerged from the financial crisis and are now offering venture capital for green investments such as offshore wind, a healthy and positive sign reflecting a more mature market, but the one that places new demands on early investors, Denmark’s export credit agency EKF said in its Annual Report 2015.

The entry of new investors into green markets has resulted in significantly better access to finance at substantially lower prices and for more projects, which led EKF to start working on a comprehensive wind energy strategy in 2015 to ensure the agency is competitive in the changed market environment.

”We want to adopt a more proactive stance when it comes to wind energy. The wind strategy enables us to prepare for and respond to the opportunities and challenges in the global wind power market now and towards 2020. EKF cannot create the exports or the demand ultimately needed to secure export orders for Danish wind companies, but EKF can make Danish exporters more interesting and relevant with a proactive stance and that is what the wind strategy is all about. The wind strategy supports Strategy 2016, but also extends into the next strategy period,” EKF said in the report.

The report has shown that guarantees for wind projects were once again EKF’s largest business area in 2015. Wind turbines accounted for DKK 7.6 billion ( around EUR 1 billion), or 54 per cent of all new guarantees for the year, DKK 2.7 billion of which was allocated to offshore wind projects.

EDK participated in two offshore wind farm financing projects in 2015, one for the 402MW Veja Mate offshore wind farm in the German section of the North Sea, which received a guarantee of DKK 1.6 billion, and the other for the 165MW Nobelwind farm in the Belgian section of the North Sea.

The DKK 1.1 billion guarantee to Nobelwind was the third EKF guarantee to the Parkwind investment vehicle, with earlier partnership projects with Parkwind being the 216MW Northwind and 165MW Belwind wind farms.

The investments into wind projects were largely responsible for EKF ending 2015 with DKK 417 million, DKK 39 million more compared to the net profit recorded in 2014.