Hamburg – Swiss energy supplier ewz has further expanded its wind farm portfolio by acquiring the Graincourt project in France. This is the third French wind farm in quick succession that the Zurich-based municipal company has acquired from the Nordex Group.
A CMS team from Germany and France led by lead partner Dr Holger Kraft and lead counsel Matthias Sethmann again advised ewz on the legal aspects of the cross-border transaction. The team from CMS also successfully advised ewz on the first two wind farm projects, Autremencourt and Vihiersois, in December 2017. In addition to due diligence on the project, the advice provided on this latest transaction included negotiating the share purchase agreement and the contracts for project development, turnkey construction and future maintenance of the facility.
Construction of the Graincourt wind farm in north-eastern France is scheduled to start during 2018. The project consists of four wind turbines with an installed capacity of 12 megawatts and is being developed close to the Autremencourt project likewise operated by ewz. The new wind farm is due to become operational in early 2019.
Elektrizitätswerk (ewz) is a leading energy supplier in Switzerland. The municipal power supply company has set itself a goal of dramatically expanding the amount of electricity it generates from wind and solar power over the next few years. Acquisition of the Graincourt wind farm means an increase in the energy supplier’s annual production across all wind farms by 34 gigawatt hours to around 580 gigawatt hours in total. ewz maintains and operates a total of four wind farms in France.
Nordex SE is a listed company based in Hamburg with annual revenues of EUR 3.4 billion, and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wind farms. The company employs around 5,000 people and has installed more than 21 gigawatts of wind power capacity to date in more than 25 countries.
CMS Germany
Dr Holger Kraft, Lead Partner
Matthias Sethmann, Lead Counsel
Kai Ostermann, Senior Associate
Dr Tilman Lorenz Petersen, Associate
Dr Susanne Keck, Associate
Gregor Lamersdorf, Associate
Luise Pelzer, Associate, all Energy/Transactions
Dr Kerstin Block, Partner
Dr Julia Runge, Counsel, both Banking & Finance
Dr Sebastian Cording, Partner, TMC
Dr Matthias Schlingmann, Partner, Dispute Resolution
Dorothée Janzen, Partner, Commercial
CMS France
Céline Cloché-Dubois, Counsel, Environment/Energy
Alexandre Morel, Counsel, Corporate, both Lead
Inés Tantardini, Associate, Environment/Energy
Marion Houdu, Associate, Corporate
Sabine Rigaud, Senior Associate
Clotilde Patte, Associate, both Commercial
