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Blackstone, Windland to develop North Sea wind farm15/07/2008. Source: AltAssets. 
 The Blackstone Group has partnered with German wind energy company Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH to develop North Sea wind farm project Meerwind.
The new project will be located 80 kilometres off the northern coast of Germany, and will comprise 80 wind turbines with a combined generation capacity of 400 MW. The project will cost in excess of €1bn to build, according to a statement.
When completed, the wind farm will generate approximately 1.6 billion KWh annually, sufficient to supply 500,000 households with electricity.
David Foley, senior managing director, Blackstone, said, 'We continue to seek out opportunities to invest in large scale energy infrastructure assets, applying Blackstone's capital, relationships and industry expertise to generate favourable returns for our limited partners while benefiting the environment and stimulating the local economy.'
Joachim Falkenhagen, founder, Windland, added, 'Our rationale for partnering with Blackstone was twofold - their expertise and commitment to large scale greenfield energy infrastructure projects, and their ability to make this happen on an accelerated time frame.
'Unlike coal-fired power generation facilities, our wind farm will not be exposed to the risk of volatile prices for imported fuel or to output constraints imposed by limitations on carbon emissions,' he continued.
Windland was founded in 1990 by Joachim Falkenhagen. The company develops wind energy projects in Germany, focusing on offshore wind development and its grid connection from the coast to inland Germany.
The deal is Blackstone's second investment in renewable energy following the financial closing of the $870m Bujagali hydroelectric power station project by Blackstone's 80 per cent owned portfolio company, Sithe Global, in December 2007.
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