Press release

Energy and finance heavyweights launch IPP to rejuvenate older European wind parks​

NeXtWind launches with initial commitments for more than US$100m to invest in the German onshore market

Berlin, 3rd February, 2021- Combining more than 100 years’ experience in energy, green finance and M&A across its senior team, NeXtWind today launches its strategy to become Europe’s next major green independent power producer (IPP).

Backed by established sustainable investors including Crestline Investors, Ferd and ARB Investment Partners, the company will initially seek to acquire and rejuvenate older, most likely teenage, wind parks in Germany.

Working with local communities and partners to bring new life, higher performance and shared benefit to existing sites, NeXtWind’s strategic goal is to acquire and transform a portfolio in excess of 1GW of end-of-regulatory-life European assets.

Ewald Woste, NeXtWind CEO, said: The older wind sites tend to have the best locations but the worst efficiencies.  We’ve assembled the expertise and funding to ensure that these sites are not lost to a diminishing baseline of clean power.  Indeed, with smart investment and management we expect to double the average wind harvest from these pioneering parks.  With Germany phasing out coal and nuclear generation, this is important work”.

Lars Meyer, Chief Investment Officer at NeXtWind, said: “The energy transition must keep moving forwards and an increasingly important ingredient to that will be the rejuvenation of Europe’s early green energy parks.  In Germany alone, we estimate that some 15GW of teenage onshore wind capacity will soon need to navigate today’s market complexities and determine a proactive plan for a future that looks very different to the present.  It’s an extremely fragmented market in need of consolidation, modernisation and significant investment”.

With an active M&A pipeline already in place, NeXtWind expects to complete the acquisition of its first sites in the coming weeks.  Acquired sites will either be repowered or undergo lifetime extension works.  The company is currently negotiating framework agreements with some of Europe’s largest utilities in order to facilitate the signature of future Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

-Ends-

Notes to editors

The Board and senior management team at NeXtWind includes:

Ewald Woste (CEO), a stalwart of the German energy industry and a member of supervisory boards including E.ON SE and dena, the German energy agency;

Lars Meyer (CIO), a private equity investor and entrepreneur with deep experience of investing in the German wind and Spanish solar markets, including as a former Managing Director at Centerbridge;

Werner Süss (COO), formerly a member of the Top Executive Management Group at Vattenfall AB and founder of several wind and clean energy investment platforms;

Sven Hansen (Chairman), a seasoned investment banker and private equity executive who, since 2000, has overseen the development of eight investment firms in the cleantech sector.

About NeXtWind

Formed in 2020, NeXtWind is a green independent power producer focused on the life extension and repowering of European clean energy assets.  It is backed by established investors including Crestline Investors, Ferd and ARB Investment Partners.​