DGAP-News: ABO Wind AG: CEZ acquires further wind power portfolio

- Successful cooperation with Czech supplier continues 
- Projects with a total capacity of up to 116.5 megawatts will receive remuneration via former market bonus system

ABO Wind has sold a second project portfolio of French wind farms to CEZ. 70 percent of the supplier is owned by the Czech government and it is among the ten largest European energy suppliers. The new portfolio consists of eight wind farms with a total capacity of 116.5 megawatts in different planning stages.

In 2017, CEZ purchased its first French wind energy portfolio with a total capacity of about 100 megawatts from ABO Wind. Half of these projects have received a building permit since then. The wind farm Aschères-le-Marché in the region Centre-Val de Loire as the most advanced project is currently under construction and is scheduled for commissioning in autumn 2019.

"In light of our excellent cooperation it was an obvious choice to expand our partnership," explains Andreas Höllinger, Chairman of the ABO Wind Managing Board. "We look forward to working together to advance renewable energies in France."

According to the agreement, ABO Wind will connect the projects, which are in various stages of development, to the grid over the next few years and will also take on the operational management. In addition to the sales price of the project rights, ABO Wind will receive milestone payments that depend on the progress of the projects. For the projects now sold, ABO Wind has secured remuneration in accordance with the tariff system valid until 2016: it offers an inflation-indexed feed-in remuneration of approx. 80 EUR/MWh over a period of 15 years via market premiums. Just like in Germany, new wind and solar projects in France have to apply for remuneration in tenders.

ABO Wind has expanded its business activities to numerous additional countries in recent years. "However, after Germany, France remains the second most important market for us," says Höllinger. In four offices in Toulouse, Orléans, Nantes and Lyon, ABO Wind SARL employs almost 80 people who have already connected roughly 300 megawatts of wind energy to the grid. The colleagues are currently working on further projects with a total of around 900 megawatts, including several solar parks.

Headquartered in Czechia, CEZ Group is an integrated energy conglomerate with operations in Western, Central, and Southeastern European countries. Its core business is the generation, distribution, trade in, and sales of electricity and heat, trade in and sales of natural gas, and coal extraction. It also provides comprehensive energy services to its customers. CEZ Group companies employ almost 30,000 people. CEZ Group announced its first acquisitions in Germany in 2016. Presently, its companies operate 53 wind turbines in ten wind farms all over the country from the Baltic Sea to the Alps, with their installed capacity totaling nearly 135 MW. These investments contribute to an optimum diversification of the CEZ Group production mix.