OX2 signs 148 MW wind power deal with Aquila Capital and Google

October 14, 2016, 08:00

Non-regulatory

Aquila Capital, a leading European asset manager of alternative investments, has signed a purchase agreement with renewable energy company OX2 for a turnkey wind farm with 41 turbines in northern Sweden. The investment is secured by a ten-year PPA contract with Google for the purchase of electricity from the wind farm.

The wind farm will be built in Lehtirova, located between the municipalities of Gällivare and Pajala. The expected average production is 490 GWh per year which will make the farm one of the largest wind power projects to date in the Nordics.

“We have been successfully active in Scandinavia for several years now. This wind farm is remarkable in many regards: Because of its sheer size, the technical layout designed to optimally capture the strong and steady wind resources at site and the set-up with the seller OX2 as experienced developer and full-wrap EPC supplier and Google as off-taker for a defined proportion of the wind farms’ output. This set-up in combination with a technically strong project offers ideal conditions to involve ourselves deeper into the value chain of renewable energies and to enter a project at an earlier stage”, says Susanne Wermter, Head of Special Infrastructure Team at Aquila Capital.

“We are pleased to establish this relationship with Aquila and to further expand our collaboration with Google. Reaching construction start for this project is once again a proof of OX2s core strength and focus; technical and financial wind farm optimization and supply of full-wrap EPC agreements”, says Paul Stormoen, Managing Director of OX2 Wind.

“Google has been carbon-neutral since 2007 and we are committed to powering 100% of our operations with renewable energy sources. Today’s announcement is Google’s 7th European wind power deal to date and reinforces our position as the world’s largest corporate renewable buyer” says Francois Sterin, Director of Global Infrastructure at Google.

The construction project will be executed as an EPC project by OX2, which expects to hand the commissioned wind turbines over to Aquila Capital in December 2018. OX2 will then continue its involvement with a long term technical and commercial management contract of the wind farm.

The turbine that has been chosen is the Vestas V126-3.6 MW, which has a total height of 184 m.

About OX2
OX2 is a renewable energy company with operations in wind power, solar power, bioenergy and geothermal energy. By offering sustainable investments, system solutions and products to financial operators, businesses and consumers, OX2 is a driving force in the conversion towards a renewable energy sector and a fossil fuel-free vehicle fleet. OX2 has realized a significant part of the large-scale onshore wind power projects in the Nordic region and produces biogas and green district heating in one of Sweden's largest biogas plants. For more information, please visit www.ox2.com

About Aquila Capital
Established in 2001, Aquila Capital is committed to provide institutional investors worldwide with alternative investments solutions in real assets, financial and private markets. Applying a multi-disciplinary investment approach, Aquila Capital’s range of alternative investments is managed by dedicated specialists in their respective asset classes and underpinned by an infrastructure that combines strong operations, stringent corporate governance and a successful track record.

Aquila Capital is an owner-managed entrepreneurial firm that has been dedicated to developing alternative investment solutions since its establishment. Over 200 professionals across eight offices globally are working across the whole value chain of alternative investments to generate stable, positive returns for investors. Further information can be found at www.aquila-capital.com.

About Google Inc.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in September 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 50,000 employees worldwide, with a wide range of popular products and platforms like Search, Maps, Ads, Gmail, Android, Chrome, and YouTube. In October 2015, Alphabet became the parent holding company of Google. You can read more about Alphabet’s mission here.

For further information on Google’s investments in and use of renewable energy, please visit http://www.google.com/green/energy/. You can also pay a virtual visit to our data centers at http://www.google.com/about/data centers/inside/index.html