Natural Power advises on Europe’s largest single-site onshore wind farm – Markbygden, Sweden

Leading renewable energy and infrastructure consultancy, Natural Power, has completed due diligence on behalf of GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) and Green Investment Group Limited (Green Investment Group), part of Macquarie Group (Macquarie) for the acquisition of the 650-MW Markbygden ETT onshore wind farm in Northern Sweden, which reached financial close on 7th November 2017.

Neil Marshall, Due Diligence Project Manager at Natural Power, said: “It has been a privilege to have played a role in helping a landmark project like Markbygden reach financial close. The scale of the project has meant that we have drawn on knowledge from a large team within Natural Power to successfully deliver the DD and EYA services.”

Giles Dearden, Director of Global Due Diligence at Natural Power, said: “Enormous congratulations are due to our clients on acquiring and financing this ‘mega’ wind farm. It has been a pleasure to have been involved and to also continue our services during the project’s construction. Natural Power can add this project to over 91GW’s of due diligence, analytics and advisory services successfully that we have completed worldwide.”

GE EFS and the Green Investment Group formally partnered to acquire the project from Swedish firm Svevind, which has been developing the scheme since 2002.

In support of the transaction, Natural Power provided extensive due diligence services including a review of contracts, project construction schedule, work in progress, site design, planning consents including environmental restrictions, and the project financial model.

As Markbygden moves forward, Natural Power will provide construction and operations monitoring – reviewing progress on the project based on the owner’s engineers’ reports, site visits, and assessing project spend versus budget, reporting to the lenders. Natural Power will also continue reporting on the operational performance of the project.

Established in the mid 1990s, Natural Power is a leading independent renewable energy and infrastructure consultancy employing more than 340 renewable energy experts worldwide. The company offers proactive and integrated consultancy, management and due diligence services, backed by an innovative product range, across the onshore wind, offshore wind, wave, tidal, renewable heat, solar pv and hydro sectors, whilst maintaining a strong outlook on other new and emerging renewable energy sectors globally.