Italian energy company Eni has entered into agreements to purchase 10% stake each from Equinor and SSE Renewables of the Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B wind farms.
Once the transaction is complete, the new overall shareholding in the two projects will be – SSE (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%).
Under the agreements, Eni will pay a consideration of £202.5m, subject to adjustments for interest on closing, to both Equinor and SSE Renewables. The transaction is expected to close in early 2021, subject to regulatory and lenders approvals and customary purchase price adjustments.
“Dogger Bank is the largest wind farm in the world under construction, and we are pleased to welcome Eni as a new partner. Through the sheer scale of the project we have delivered record-low contract prices for the UK market, and as operator of the wind farm we will continue to deliver value to the UK for years to come. Together with our partners we will continue to drive the energy transition to a net zero emissions future for the UK,” commented Pål Eitrheim, Executive Vice President in New Energy Solutions in Equinor.
“For Eni, entering the offshore wind market in Northern Europe is a great opportunity to gain further skills in the sector thanks to the collaboration with two of the industry’s leading companies, and to make a substantial contribution to the 2025 target of 5 GW of installed capacity from renewables, an intermediate step towards the more ambitious target of zero net direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 2050,” says Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of Eni.
Gregor Alexander, SSE’s Finance Director, said: “The sale of a stake in Dogger Bank Wind Farm to Eni is another successful example of SSE’s approach to partnering to create and secure value for shareholders. This transaction will enable us to fund further low carbon growth opportunities, helping to deliver governments’ net zero ambitions and our own target to treble our renewable output by 2030.”
The Dogger Bank wind farms are located more than 130 km from the Yorkshire coast. SSE Renewables is leading the construction of the wind farm, and Equinor will operate the project during its lifetime of at least 25 years. Further to Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B, the two companies are also developing the Dogger Bank C project for which it is expected that a financial decision will come in late 2021. The projects will be capable of powering up to 4.5 UK million homes each year when complete in 2026.
Due to its size and scale, the overall wind farm is being built in three consecutive 1.2 GW phases. Each project is expected to generate around 6 TWh of electricity annually. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm secured 3.6 GW of offshore wind contracts in the UK government’s 2019 Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions. The CfDs awarded provide overall price certainty to each phase of the Dogger Bank project for a period of 15 years.