Google to purchase green electricity exclusively from Neoen
Neoen, one of the world’s leading and fastest-growing independent producers of renewable energy, announced the commissioning of its 81 MW Hedet Wind Farm in Närpes, Finland.
Neoen owns an 80% stake in the Hedet Wind Farm. The company, Prokon Wind Energy Finland, owns the remaining 20%.
Under a 10-year power purchase agreement, Google will purchase all the green electricity generated by the Hedet Wind Farm, which is competitively priced.
Christophe Desplats-Redier, Neoen’s Regional Director, said:
Hedet is a landmark project for Neoen, and the start of its commercial operations represents a major milestone for our business in Finland.
We would like to express our gratitude to Google, the Närpes municipal authorities, our partner Prokon, our subcontractors and all the local stakeholders—the population of Overmark and Finnish operator EPV— which helped us bring this project through to its fruition.”
The green electricity generated by the Hedet Wind Farm will be injected into the grid that supplies Google’s data centre in Hamina, Finland, enabling the centre to cover some of its electricity needs with renewable energy.
The Hedet Wind Farm
The Hedet Wind Farm is equipped with 18 Nordex N149 turbines, each with 4.5 MW in unit capacity and it is the first renewable energy project of Neoen in Finland to enter service.
According to a press release from Neoen, the Hedet Wind Farm demonstrates Neoen’s ambition to become a leading renewable energy company in Finland.
The German bank KFW IPEX and the Swedish bank SEB provided €66.5 million in senior debt to help finance the power plant. The total investment cost of the project stands at €85.4 million excluding borrowing costs.
Xavier Barbaro, Neoen’s Chairman and CEO said:
We are very proud to commission the Hedet Wind Farm, our first operating asset in Finland. As a long-term investor and operator, Neoen is contributing to the achievement of the country’s [Finland] goal of being carbon-neutral by 2035.”
Neoen is growing its renewable energy project portfolio in Finland
In another partnership with Prokon, Neoen is currently finalizing the development of Mutkalampi Wind Farm, Western Finland.
The partnership also includes finalising a second power purchase agreement with Google, which includes covering 130 MW of the 250 MW facility’s total energy capacity.
Dr. Henning von Stechow, Prokon Board Member, said: “A project of this scale which qualifies for a power purchase agreement with a company like Google is a huge accomplishment for our organization.
“Securing a second PPA confirms that this way of realizing projects can be a viable alternative to public subsidies.
Throughout this process, Neoen has once again proven to be a trustworthy and highly-qualified partner and we look forward to our future cooperation.”
Neoen and Proken expect Mutkalampi Wind Farm to start supplying renewable energy to Google’s facilities in Finland from 2022.
Neoen is also starting construction of Yllikkälä Power Reserve One, 30 MW/30 MWh, anticipated to become the largest battery storage unit in the whole of the Nordic region.
With this battery storage unit, Neoen aims to aid in improving the stability of the national electricity grid in Finland.
Xavier Barbaro, Neoen’s Chairman, and CEO said: “We are actively pursuing the development of other projects in the country with the same high-quality standards and in close cooperation with local communities.”