Fast-growing SSE Renewables has completed the purchase of Siemens Gamesa’s 3.8GW portfolio of wind projects across southern Europe.
The clean power division of SSE, Scotland’s biggest generator-retailer, is acquiring ventures either spinning already or on the drawing board, and located across Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Co-location in some spots of up to 1.4GW of solar PV features in the transaction.
The deal was first announced in April, but has taken five months to finalise.
Sterling’s weakness against the euro puts today’s purchase price at £500 million, £19 million higher than announced in the spring. Another £28 million covers net debt and adjustments to working capital.
Fifty staff will be transferred between the companies.
The turbine maker has been restructuring itself, in the wake of disastrous losses. Jochen Eickholt took over as Siemens-Gamesa’s CEO in March, with Tim Dawidowski rising internally to the post of chief operating officer.
Parent SSE envisages SSE Renewables as having around 500MW of clean power projects generating by March 2026, plus another 500MW under construction.
The goals are in line with the company’s targets under its parent’s Net Zero Acceleration Programme. These foresee:
- doubling installed renewable capacity to 8GW by 2026m, and trebling it to 13GW by 2031
- maintaining a pipeline of at least 15GW of renewables projects in development
- trebling installed renewables capacity to over 13GW, and targetting a fivefold increase in yearly renewables power to 50TWh by 2031.
The Scots developer last week commissioned the first turbine on the Seagreen wind farm off Angus, the nation’s current largest at 1.075GW. SSE Renewables operates the North Sea project for majority owner TotalEnergies.
Today’s deal includes Siemens Gamesa enjoying an unspecified “opportunity” to supply turbines and long-term maintenance to SSE Renewables for some at least of the wind farms it operates.
“With this sale, Siemens Gamesa is optimising its portfolio of assets and maximising value”, says CEO Eickholt.
“SSE is the right partner to develop the excellent portfolio of wind projects built over the years by our South European project development team. This agreement will be beneficial for both companies,”
“We are delighted to have closed this transaction ahead of schedule and really excited to welcome new colleagues to the SSE Renewables business. There is a fantastic local team in place who will help us build a long-term presence in Southern Europe developing, building and operating onshore wind, solar and storage infrastructure.
“We look forward to continuing to work with communities and stakeholders across the region to deliver the energy transition,” said Stephen Wheeler, SSE Renewables’ managing director.
