WindMW GmbH, a company majority owned by funds managed by Blackstone, has completed the financing for “Meerwind,” the largest German offshore wind farm to complete its full financing process. Meerwind is also the first German wind farm to be fully financed by private investors. The 80 turbine wind farm will be situated approximately 50 km off the German coast in the North Sea. Construction of the 288MW offshore wind farm will be completed in 2013. Once finished, Meerwind will produce sufficient power to service approximately 400,000 households and will help Germany eliminate approximately one million tons of carbon emissions per year. This is only the second German offshore wind farm to complete its financing and is the first to close under the recently unveiled Offshore Wind Programme, the KfW programme.

A group of seven commercial lenders, including Commerzbank, KfW IPEX- Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Dexia, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander and Siemens Bank together with EKF, the export credit agency of Denmark, and KfW-Bankengruppe, will provide total financing of 822 million euros for the project, with a total investment cost of 1.2 billion euros. Affiliates of Blackstone Capital Partners VI L.P. and Blackstone Energy Partners L.P. will provide substantially all of the project’s invested equity. The other partner in the project is Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH, the project’s initial permit holder.

The investment funds the installation of 80 substructures (monopile foundations) with Siemens 3.6MW-120 wind turbines, the laying of infield cables, as well as the installation of the offshore high voltage substation. Connection to the main grid, as per German law, will be undertaken by the grid operator Tennet TSO GmbH.

As part of Blackstone’s commitment to investing in the German offshore wind industry, Blackstone also announced the acquisition of a permit to construct the Nordlicher Grund wind farm. The 64 turbine wind farm with an estimated construction cost of 1.3 billion euros will be situated approximately 100 km off the German coast in the North Sea. Construction is expected to commence in 2013 with completion in 2016.

WindMW was established in 2008 as a Blackstone portfolio company to develop German offshore wind farms. The Meerwind concession area is 50 km off the coast of Germany, Northwest of Helgoland. Meerwind first obtained the permit to build its wind park in 2007 from the Bundesamt fur Seeschifffahrt und Hydrologie (BSH). WindMW was advised by Green Giraffe Energy Bankers, KfW-IPEX and Dexia (financing), Gleiss Lutz (legal), NWA (insurance), Ernst & Young (tax). The lenders were advised by Watson, Farley & Williams (legal & tax), Sgurr Energy (technical), PKF (model audit), JLT (insurance) and IPA (power market).