Mitsubishi agreed with Tennet Holding BV to buy shares in two German offshore cable projects connecting wind farms to the onshore electricity grid as the Japanese trading company seeks to expand in Europe.
Tennet would retain a majority, the Dutch company said in a statement on its website today. Helwin2 and Dolwin2 have 1.59 gigawatts of capacity and need 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion) of investment, with “an expected third-party equity stake around 340 million euros.” The projects, due to be completed by 2015, will carry enough energy to supply 1.5 million homes.
Europe’s wind market is luring Asian companies as countries including the UK and Germany seek to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and increase energy security. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, plans to install 10 gigawatts of offshore turbines by 2020 as it abandons nuclear power. Tennet is working on nine connection projects in the German North Sea, it said.
The letter of intent announced today expands on an accord in February under which Mitsubishi agreed to purchase 49 percent in two other German cable projects from Tennet called Borwin1 and Borwin2 for a total of 240 million euros.
