Glennmont Partners, from Nuveen (“Glennmont”), one of the world’s leading fund managers focused exclusively on investing in clean energy infrastructure, has announced that the 211MW Piiparinmäki wind farm has commenced commercial operations.
The Finnish onshore wind farm is one of the largest constructed unsubsidised wind farms in Europe and is a key wind power asset in the Nord Pool region providing vital infrastructure to support the green energy transition. COD marks a significant milestone for Glennmont’s third Clean Energy Fund. Glennmont have joint ownership in Piiparinmäki, alongside their partners Kansai Electric Power Company, who will be involved in the project as a minority stakeholder after purchasing a 15% stake in 2020.
Located in the regions of Kainuu and North Ostrobothnia, the project has been constructed using wind turbine technology from Vestas, including 13 V150 4.2MW wind turbines, and 28 V150 5.6MW turbines, at a hub height of 150m. Piiparinmäki has partnered with Google to offtake generation from 24 of the 41 turbines through a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement; the remaining generation will be sold through a merchant agreement with Vattenfall.
Glennmont has worked closely with Ilmatar Energy; the project’s developer, who provided an important role in the Balance of Plant contracting and provision of construction management services at the site. Day-to-day operations will be provided by Ilmatar Service as the technical and commercial management agent, with oversight from Glennmont’s Asset Management team.
As part of their ongoing management of the project and support of local ESG initiatives, the owners have established a community benefit scheme. This will provide €100,000 per annum to support local projects that improve the lives of those living near the Piiparinmäki Wind Farm through environmental, social and economic initiatives.
Francesco Cacciabue, CFO at Glennmont Partners, commented:
“We are delighted to see Piiparinmäki enter commercial operations where it will serve as a vital component in Finland’s clean energy mix. To reach this major milestone by completing the project’s construction is a testament to the hard work of all our partners who have helped get us to this point.
“The role of wind power and other renewables in making up the global energy supply is more pressing than ever before, and at Glennmont we look forward to advancing more projects in the Nordic region following Piiparinmäki’s success as part of our next phase of growth.”
In March 2021, Glennmont was acquired by Nuveen, the $1.3tn global asset manager, which will better enable Glennmont to drive its plans to raise further renewable funds, and to target new investments in all major technologies – offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV – in their core European markets as well as across Asia Pacific and the US.
