Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Buys Into Large-Scale German, Danish Offshore Wind Projects

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the international investments of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and Norges Bank’s foreign exchange reserves, is acquiring ownership in RWE’s Nordseecluster and Thor offshore wind farms, a 49 per cent stake in each.

RWE said on 31 March that it had signed an agreement with NBIM for an agreed purchase price of approximately EUR 1.4 billion as of closing. According to the Germany-based offshore wind developer, the closing of the transaction is subject to customary approvals and is expected by the beginning of the third quarter of 2025.

Under the agreement, NBIM will acquire a 49 per cent stake in the 1.6 GW, two-phase Nordseecluster project in Germany and 49 per cent in the 1.1 GW Thor offshore wind farm in Denmark, both currently under construction, with RWE remaining in charge of construction and operations throughout the lifecycle of the offshore wind farms.

For the manager of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, this is not the first investment in offshore wind. Back in 2021, NBIM acquired its first ownership in an offshore wind project by buying a 50 per cent stake in the Borssele 1 & 2 offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, built and operated by Ørsted.

The total value of the transaction was circa EUR 1.375 billion.

In June last year, NBIM entered into an agreement with a consortium made up of investment funds belonging to Australia-headquartered Macquarie Asset Management and Spring Infrastructure Capital for a 37.5 per cent stake in the 573 MW Race Bank offshore wind farm in the UK.

The stake was sold to the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund for approximately GBP 330 million (around EUR 390 million at the time).

RWE’s two large-scale offshore wind projects in which NMIB is acquiring ownership are about to start major construction work at their offshore sites.

Foundation installation is set to commence soon on the Thor offshore wind farm, and the same work is scheduled to begin on Nordseecluster A this summer.

The 1,080 MW Thor is Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date. The project site is located approximately 22 kilometres off the west coast of Jutland, where 72 Siemens Gamesa’s SG 14-236 DD wind turbines will be installed, of which 40 will feature recyclable blades.

Thor is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2027.

The Nordseecluster project, located approximately 50 kilometres north of the island of Juist in Germany, is being built in two phases, with the 660 MW Nordseecluster A planned to be fully commissioned in 2027 and the second phase, the 900 MW Nordseecluster B, scheduled to enter operation in 2029.

Nordseecluster A will comprise 44 Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines, and Nordseecluster B will have 60 turbines of the same model.

The Nordseecluster and Thor will have long-term contracted revenues that provide stable cash flows and reduce risk to the projects, RWE says.

In addition to these two offshore wind farms under construction in Germany and Denmark, RWE is currently building the Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK and OranjeWind off the coast of the Netherlands.

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