DONG Energy has just sold its 33% interest in the Norwegian onshore wind company Kvalheim Kraft to Vardar Boreas AS, which already owns a 33% interest in Kvalheim Kraft.
Kvalheim Kraft owns two operating wind farms, Mehuken 1 and 2, which are located close to the west coast of Norway approx. 300 km north of Bergen. The combined wind farms have a total installed capacity of approximately 23 MW, consisting of 4.25 MW from Mehuken 1 and 18.4 MW from Mehuken 2.
With the divestment of DONG Energy’s Norwegian operating onshore wind assets, DONG Energy is now focusing even more on developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms.
“The onshore wind assets in Norway have been a good investment for DONG Energy. But as our core expertise is not in onshore wind, we have decided to divest these assets in Norway to allow us to focus our energy in the future in areas in which we can create maximum value, i.e. offshore wind,” says Samuel Leupold, Executive Vice President of DONG Energy Wind Power .
One out of three DONG Energy will now focus on offshore wind, where it is the market leader. More than one out of three offshore wind turbines has been installed by DONG Energy.
“To date we have installed offshore wind turbines capable of delivering power sufficient for the annual consumption of more than 2 million households. By 2020 we want to triple this number so that a total of more than 6 million households can get their power from DONG Energy’s offshore wind turbines.”
Since February 2013, when DONG Energy presented its new strategy, in which the company focuses on offshore wind, DONG Energy has divested its onshore wind assets in Poland, Denmark and Norway.
DONG Energy has offshore wind farms in operation in Denmark and the UK, an offshore wind farm under construction in Germany, onshore wind farms in operation in Sweden and France and onshore wind development projects in Norway.
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Press release, August 13, 2013; Image: DONG Energy