Dentons’ market-leading Warsaw Energy and Natural Resources team has closed several significant investment projects in the renewable energy sector (RES) in the first quarter of 2021. These deals are testament to how attractive and mature the Polish renewable energy market has become and will stimulate further growth in this sector.
These deals are also indicative of the fact that investors often focus their first operations in the region on the Polish market, which in their perception is a convenient operating platform to then establish their presence in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
“The whole raft of projects we have completed to date shows that Poland is perceived as a very attractive market for RES investments and that this trend is likely to continue in the next few years,” said Agnieszka Kulińska, Partner in the Energy and Natural Resources team in Warsaw. “Clients need multi-faceted, cutting-edge legal support and for this reason, they appreciate our many years of solid and proven experience in advising on wind farm acquisitions and disposals. We are happy to successfully help our customers, even in the pandemic-affected business environment.”
Most recently in March 2021, the team advised CEE Equity Partners on the sale of a 163 megawatts (MW) project consisting of three wind farms to Iberdrola. The farms will form part of the Baltic Sea Hub (BSH), which is planned to become a hub for Iberdrola’s German, Polish and Swedish operations. To a large extent, the energy produced by BSH has already been contracted for the next 10 years.
Also in March, Dentons announced that it had advised Green Investment Group, a fund owned by Australia’s Macquarie Group, on the acquisition of the Ścieki windfarm from EnerCap Power Funds, while earlier in February, the company advised the investment funds Stage Capital Management and Mashav Energia on the sale of the Kanin wind farm.
“These are just a handful of the projects our team has worked on recently,” said Arkadiusz Krasnodębski, Poland Managing Partner and the Head of the Energy team in Poland and Europe. “Currently, we are advising on projects with a combined installed capacity of over 600 MW. We expect to close more deals in the second quarter of 2021, also thanks to auctions supporting RES projects for the next 15 years, which will be held on June 8 and 11, 2021, for wind and solar projects, respectively.”
