The Kolvallen wind farm is a 277MW onshore wind project being developed in the Ljusdals municipality of eastern Sweden.
The project received environmental approval from Sweden’s Land and Environment Court in July 2021 and is expected to generate 1TWh of electricity a year.
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The wind farm was previously owned by Arise, a wind power company based in Sweden. Arise sold the wind farm to Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners, an energy transition fund managed by UK-based private investment company Foresight Group, in July 2022 for €100m ($100.16m).
Arise will be responsible for managing the development and construction of the project on behalf of Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners. It will also invest €17m ($17.14m) to acquire a 9% stake in the project.
The construction of the Kolvallen wind farm is anticipated to start in 2022 and be completed by 2025.
Location
The wind farm is being developed in the Ljusdals municipality, which is located in Gävleborg county, approximately 298km north of Stockholm, in eastern Sweden.
It lies 15km away from the 231MW Skaftåsen project, located in Sweden’s Härjedalen municipality, which is also being developed by Foresight.
Kolvallen wind project background
The Kolvallen wind farm was originally developed by Ownpower Projects Europe, a wind power developer based in Sweden, and Arise. In 2016, a conditional environmental permit was received for the initial project design, which featured an installed capacity of 180MW from 50 wind turbines.
In April of the same year, Arise acquired the project from Ownpower for further development and to explore the possibility of a future sale. Arise signed a letter of intent with Fortum Sverige, an energy company based in Sweden and subsidiary of Fortum, in September 2016 for the possible sale of the wind farm.
The environmental permit for the project was denied in June 2017 due to the project’s existing prerequisites. A new application was submitted by Arise in 2019. In May 2020, the Land and Environment Court granted an environmental permit for 45 wind turbines out of the planned 47.
Arise received the final environmental permit for the project in July 2021.
Kolvallen wind farm details
The wind farm will be installed with 41 Siemens Gamesa SG 6.6-170 turbines and one SG 6.6-155 turbine, which are both based on the company’s 5.X platform. The platform features a compact drive train design with three staged gearbox, along with a double-fed generator and partial converter combination.
Each turbine can produce up to 6.6MW of wind power. The SG 6.6-170 turbine will have a rotor diameter of 170m, swept area of 22,697m² (244,308.5ft²) and tower height of 135m. The single SG 6.6-155 turbine will have a rotor diameter of 155m, swept area of 18,869m² (203,104ft²) and tower height of 122.5m.
The wind farm benefits from excellent wind resources at the project site as well as an existing line concession and grid connection.
Financing
In July 2022, NORD/LB Norddeutsche Landesbank, a commercial bank based in Germany, agreed to provide funding to support the construction of the wind farm as the sole mandated lead arranger (MLA) and underwriter.
Contractors involved
The contract for the supply of onshore wind turbines was awarded to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer, in July 2022. The contract also includes a 35-year service agreement.
Norway-based investment banking firm DNB Markets and business law firm Setterwalls Advokatbyrå advised Arise during the sale agreement of the wind farm to Foresight. Newsec Infra, a financing advisory based in Sweden, provided advice for Foresight.
Setterwalls Advokatbyrå also assisted Arise in securing an environmental permit for the project in 2020.
Environmental consulting company Ecogain worked in collaboration with Arise to prepare the environmental assessment report for a new application submitted for the project in 2019.
NORD/LB was advised by DLA Piper, a global law firm based in the UK.
