Envision acquires Swedish wind farm

The Shanghai-based leading global smart energy technologies and services provider, Envision Energy, has acquired a 25 MW onshore Swedish wind farm located outside of Eskilstuna. Newsec has acted as exclusive financial advisor to the seller. The acquisition marks the largest Chinese wind farm investment to date in Sweden and market entry of a new technology provider. Envision will accelerate construction immediately and targets start of commercial operation by September 2016.

“We are very excited about this acquisition as the first project investment in our European expansion and believe that it will be a great opportunity to via this wind farm demonstrate our technological ability and innovative approach,” says Felix Zhang, Executive Director and Head of International Business, at Envision.

The Kafjärden wind farm generates energy at a competitive price and is seen as a good fit with the intended turbine technology by Envision. It has been developed by Christer Öholm and Paula Tidefjärd who owns the land for some of the turbine positions and who will retain an ownership stake.

“We are very pleased to soon see the wind farm in operation. Kafjärden is one of few strong wind farm locations in this area of the country,” says Christer Öholm.

Newsec has acted as exclusive financial advisor to Christer Öholm and Paula Tidefjärd in the transaction and thereby concludes its 23rd wind farm transaction on the Swedish market since 2007.

“Swedish wind power is increasingly becoming part of an international investment market attracting both financial and industrial investors. Envision’s acquisition marks the entry of a new innovative industrial company,” says Omid Ashrafi, Head of Infrastructure and Energy Newsec.

Kafjärden, which is located in the municipality of Eskilstuna, will consist of Envision’s proven smart wind turbines, designed by the Global Innovation Center in Denmark and the R&D center in Shanghai, and will also leverage Envison’s strong EPC management competency. It will once commissioned be the largest Nordic wind farm owned by a China based company.

Envision Energy is right now the top 3 wind turbine supplier in China. The wind farm will also be armed with the full life cycle management system consisting of the “Greenwich” cloud platform and the Wind OS management system, the development of which is based on smart sensor network and cloud computing. Envision Energy now manages 10 million kilowatts of global alternative energy assets, and currently is the largest smart energy management company in the world.