Bird & Bird LLP's German team has advised the Czech company Falkon Capital and its subsidiary Alten Ltd on the erection of a 51MW windfarm in the Republic of Kalmykia, south of Russia.

In the rapidly developing wind energy market, Alten was one of the first companies to erect windfarms in Russia. It first developed and erected a windfarm with a performance of 2,4MW in the Republic of Kalmykia in 2010.

The implementation and realisation of the onshore windfarm project “Priyutnenskaya VES 51MW” involves planning, delivery and setting up of 20 2.5MW turbines, as well as building the complete infrastructure involved in the project. Furthermore, the financing of the project has been secured. That contract was awarded to German wind turbine manufacturer FWT Production GmbH. The delivery of the wind turbines has been planned for the end of 2016 and should start operation in the first half of 2017.

This onshore windfarm project is the first large multi-megawatt project in Russia to be carried out by a private investor. The 51MW windfarm just represents the first phase of the total 300MW capacity windfarm.

The Bird & Bird team advising Falkon Capital was led by Partner Dr. Christian Kessel, Frankfurt and Counsel Lars Kyrberg, Hamburg (both Commercial). The other team members included Partner Dr. Ulrich Goebel and Counsel Stephan Kübler (both Corporate, Munich), as well as Partner Dr. Matthias Winter and Associate Stanislav Schmidt (who is also Russian qualified). Both are from Bird & Bird's Banking and Finance group in Frankfurt.