CIP swaps US offshore wind assets to consolidate its renewables market position and accelerate growth

About the asset swap

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has entered into an agreement to restructure its US offshore wind joint venture with Avangrid Renewables, LLC, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR). The restructuring will allow CIP and Avangrid Renewables to focus on their own expansion plans in the US offshore wind market and better align project timelines with the sponsors’ strategic objectives.

CIP, a pioneer in offshore wind globally, successfully entered the US offshore wind market in 2016 and decisively moved forward with developing the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, which achieved financial close just last week. For the past five years, CIP has co-led the development of all projects within the US offshore wind joint venture and will also co-lead the construction phase of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, delivering the first commercial scale project in the US.

Following the restructuring, CIP will become the 100% owner of lease area OCS-A 522, which can accommodate up to 2,500MW of offshore wind power, and Avangrid Renewables will become the 100% owner of lease area OCS-A 534, containing the 804MW Park City Wind project and the prospective 1,200MW Commonwealth Wind project. Given the more advanced development status of Park City Wind and Commonwealth Wind, CIP will also receive a net payment of $167.5 million by Avangrid Renewables at closing, expected in the next six months.

Strong prospects in US offshore wind for CIP

The US offshore wind market is set to reach 30GW of capacity by 2030 and via lease area OCS-A 0522, CIP will be able to deliver a significant amount of offshore wind capacity to the US power grid, allowing the individual states and the federal government to reach their respective renewable energy targets. Lease area 522 has the highest wind resource of any federal lease area in the US and has strong fundamentals to compete for power contracts. Showcasing the strategic value of the site, projects in the lease area will be able to deliver clean energy from New York to Massachusetts. Overall, the lease area will require an investment of more than USD 10 billion and create thousands of local jobs over the course of the projects’ lifetime.

“We strongly believe in the fundamentals of offshore wind and we see significant growth opportunities in the US offshore wind market. We have been front runners in the US offshore wind market by taking Vineyard Wind 1 to financial close, and we are looking forward to doing the same with the projects to be developed in lease area 522.” says Michael Hannibal, Partner in CIP. “We are fully committed to developing the 522 lease area and will use the best in class experiences of our US team to advance these exciting projects quickly and efficiently.”.

CIP will also be looking to secure more offshore wind capacity through the upcoming lease auctions to be held by BOEM in the New York Bight area and California.