The operator of the GABRIELSBERGET NORD wind farm, Gabrielsberget Nord Vind AB, successfully concluded the overall financing for the project today. The debt capital will be provided by KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (Frankfurt/Main, Germany), SEB AG (Frankfurt/Main, Germany) and Nordic Investment Bank (Helsinki/Finland) with KfW IPEX-Bank assuming the coordinating role for the consortium of banks. The shareholders of the company and equity sponsors are SVEVIND Holding AB, Umeå, Sweden, and ENERCON Independent Power Producer GmbH, Aurich, Germany. The total investment will come to around EUR 70 million. A part of the total financing was provided by the Swedish energy agency and their subsidy programme for wind energy ‘Storskalig vindkraft i norra Sverige’.

The site of the wind farm is located in Västerbotten County in Northern Sweden. Southwest to the city of Nordmaling, close to the Baltic Sea, the exposed mountain GABRIELSBERGET offers excellent conditions for wind energy utilisation. The project was developed by the Swedish SVEVIND group. The GABRIELSBERGET NORD wind farm will consist of 20 wind energy plants of the type E-82 E2 with a rated power output of 2.3 MW each and 108m hub height supplied by the German manufacturer ENERCON GmbH. The wind energy plants are ideally suited for this climatically demanding region with special arctic climate equipment and rotor blade heating systems to prevent heavy icing on the blades. The plants will feed a total of approx. 130,000 MWh/a year into the high-voltage network. At the GABRIELSBERGET site, the wind energy plants will be utilised with about 2,800 full load hours per year. The construction of all wind energy plants and the infrastructure is planned to be finished in summer 2012. The GABRIELSBERGET NORD wind farm is the extension of the already operational GABRIELSBERGET SYD wind farm, realised and financed by the same partners. The wind farm will contribute to lowering emissions and the mitigation of climate change.

The deployment of the project in GABRIELSBERGET will underline the desirability of wind energy projects in high wind locations of Northern Sweden. An important financial incentive is the funding provided by the Swedish quota and certificate trading system, and the allocation of investment grants due to the particularly challenging location.