Finland: wpd Secures Financing for 72.6 Megawatt Wind Farm

Wind farm developer and operator wpd has now secured financing for its third project in Finland. The capital required for the Tohkoja project will be provided by wpd equity as well as the Commerzbank AG and the Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale. The construction of the 72.6 megawatt wind farm will start tomorrow. The installation of 22 wind turbines is scheduled to be completed until December. In an average operating year each of the turbines will clearly exceed the mark of 3,000 full load hours.

In January 2014, wpd europe GmbH has acquired the Tohkoja project from the Finnish energy utility Fortum. It is located in the municipality of Kalajoki at the west coast of Finland near the wpd wind farm Jokela.

"This neighborhood will bring synergy to the realisation of both projects; they are connected, for example, to the same 110 kilovolt power line through a common substation", says Esa Holttinen, Managing Director of wpd Finland Oy. Based on current information, geographically, technically and in terms of ownership, the two wind farms would form the largest wind energy production area in Finland - totalling 34 wind turbines with a capacity of 108.6 megawatt.

While the Jokela wind farm will already be completed at the end of this year, the construction of roads and turbine assembly areas in the Tohkoja project will start tomorrow. For this work, the local building company Kuljetuspolar Oy was commissioned. The foundation work for the first turbine sites is scheduled to start in this autumn. The total construction work will be steered by wpd construction Finland Oy.