Masdar buys 49% stake in German wind farm project

Masdar

• Spain’s Iberdrola owns and operates $1.6bn Baltic Eagle wind farm
• Asset in German Baltic Sea expected to power 475,000 homes
• 100% of production already sold before facility comes online in 2024

UAE renewable energy company Masdar is buying a 49 percent stake in Spanish utility Iberdrola’s 476MW offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea for €375 million ($414.5 million).

The Baltic Eagle wind farm is valued at €1.6 billion, with Iberdrola controlling and managing the asset and providing operation and maintenance services.

Baltic Eagle consists of 50 wind turbines built on monopile foundations, each with a unit capacity of 9.53MW.

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The anticipated annual production is 1.9 terawatt-hours, enough to meet the electricity demands of 475,000 homes, saving 800,000 tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere every year.

The wind farm, scheduled to come into initial operation at the end of 2024, has a minimum regulated tariff of €64.6/MWh for the first 20 years. In addition, 100 percent of its production has already been sold via long-term contracts.

“As the UAE looks ahead to hosting Cop28, partnerships such as this show how we can hold back emissions without holding back progress,” Masdar chairman and Cop28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber said.

“This agreement will harness Germany’s abundant wind power in the Baltic Sea and bring electricity to nearly half a million homes, while cutting emissions.”

Iberdrola executive chairman Ignacio Galan said Baltic Eagle is a major project that will help expand green energy security in Europe, reduce emissions for homes and businesses and support thousands of highly skilled jobs. 

Ahead of the UAE hosting the UN climate change conference later this year, Al Jaber and Galan met earlier this month to discuss the urgent need to triple global renewable energy capacity and to ensure the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global temperature rises remain within reach.

In September 2022, the UAE and Germany signed an agreement to advance projects of joint interest in areas including energy security, decarbonisation and climate action. 

The energy security and industry accelerator agreement signed between the two countries involved plans for Masdar to explore offshore wind opportunities in the Baltic Sea to support Germany’s clean energy goals.  

Iberdrola has 3,000MW of offshore wind projects under construction or secured with zero seabed costs.  

With projects across 40 countries, Masdar delivers more than 20 GW of clean energy to power over 5.25 million homes. Its global investment portfolio exceeds $30 billion.  

The company is also developing Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar power plant and building Africa’s largest wind farm, a 10 GW mega-facility in Egypt.