OREANDA-NEWS. EnBW Energie Baden-WЁ№rttemberg AG has sold 49.89 percent of its shares in the offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 2 to Macquarie Capital, the principal investment, advisory and capital markets arm of Macquarie Group. A corresponding purchase agreement has now been signed. "This means that we have now successfully implemented our second participation model in the area of offshore wind energy.", emphasised Thomas Kusterer, EnBW Chief Financial Officer. "EnBW utilises participation models to generate additional financial scope for pushing forward the development of other growth projects." The purchase price for the shares, which will be transferred to Macquarie Capital after antitrust approval and the full commissioning of the offshore wind farm that is expected next summer, is circa 720 million euros. At the same time, EnBW will take over responsibility for the management of the wind farm and the maintenance work. As a result, the company will also correspondingly expand its service business.

EnBW already started operating its first commercial offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 in 2010, which was also offered as a participation model: A total of 19 municipal utilities, primarily from Baden-WЁ№rttemberg, have held a combined 49.9 percent share of the wind farm since it was commissioned. In addition, fourteen regional energy companies from Baden-WЁ№rttemberg have signed contracts in the area of onshore wind energy since July 2014 for the acquisition of around 45 percent of the shares in the onshore wind farms operated by EnBW. These wind power plants have a total output of 156 megawatts and are spread over 17 locations in Germany.

In the coming years, EnBW intends to invest more than 7 billion euros in the strategic restructuring of its activities. As part of its 2020 strategy, EnBW plans to invest around 3.5 billion euros - which represents around 50 percent of the total investment - in the expansion of wind energy and a further 3 billion euros in its grid business.

EnBW Baltic 2 is being constructed 32 kilometres north of the Baltic island of RЁ№gen. The erection of the turbines is currently in full swing: 34 wind power turbines have already been installed. It is anticipated that - subject to suitable weather conditions - the first power turbines will start feeding electricity into the grid in the next few weeks. The full commissioning of EnBW Baltic 2 is scheduled for spring 2015 with 80 wind power turbines and a total capacity of 288 megawatts. The offshore wind farm can generate 1,200 gigawatt hours of electricity per year that covers the theoretical requirements of around 340,000 households and will save 900,000 tonnes of CO2.