Skyborn Renewables considers entering Polish offshore as a partner
Skyborn Renewables, an offshore wind energy company owned by the US fund Global Infrastructure Partners, is considering entering, including in capital, Polish offshore projects, Skyborn’s head of Poland Maciej Wagner told PAP.
As a basic operational model in Poland, Skyborn sees a strategic partnership with one of the holders of the recently decided proceedings for locations in the second phase of offshore construction.
– We assume that we would be an attractive partner because of our know-how, which we share and operate projects in an open manner, and because of our ability to provide stable financing. In addition, we do not plan to sell our potential Polish projects further, but to remain in them as a shareholder,” Wagner emphasised.
– ‘We are working with various partners around the world, both private companies and state-owned concerns, such as EDF in France. As part of a large investment fund, we are able to provide stable financing, and offshore wind farms require a huge amount of capital, he explained. – We are currently awaiting final decisions on the allocation of individual phase two sites. However, the potential partners we have spoken to so far indicate that until these decisions are final, it is difficult to start concrete talks,” he added.
Out of 10 locations for the construction of wind farms on the Baltic Sea in the so-called second phase of support, the Ministry of Infrastructure awarded five to Orlen and five to PGE after the proceedings, including projects with various partners: Orsted, Enea and Tauron. However, other participants in the proceedings challenged the results of these proceedings.
The first offshore wind project that Skyborm ran while it was still a German company, before being taken over by the Americans, was a farm in the German part of the Baltic Sea. So we have more than 20 years of experience in the Baltic Sea,” Wagner emphasised.
– In the Polish offshore we would certainly like to enter more than one project of the order of 1 GW. Two-three or even more are within our financial reach. Either way, these are amounts in the order of billions of dollars,’ added the head of Skyborn in Poland.
As he pointed out, the company has very extensive experience in projects under the project finance formula and in obtaining financing from banks and other institutions.
– In recent years, we have raised several billion euros in this way, so it is not only our own funds that are involved, but also external financing, he stressed.
According to Maciej Wagner, it makes the most sense to develop energy connections between the countries of the Baltic Sea through offshore wind farms.
– We are working with German operators and they are thinking very seriously about such investments, and some such lines would run close to the northern locations in the Polish zone. The development of such connections could stabilise entire energy systems in the entire Baltic Basin. Especially if they connect to hydropower in Sweden, which gives good performance in the base. The Baltic Sea has excellent potential and it would be important to think about how to connect it, Wagner assessed.
Skyborn currently has offshore projects in Germany, Finland, Sweden and France. The company’s owner, US-based Global Infrastructure Partners, with government assets of $100 million, invests in infrastructure of various kinds: energy, such as LNG terminals, telecommunications, or transport, such as airports.
Source: PortalMorski.pl
