Ilmatar Energy (‘Ilmatar’) has secured €42m of senior debt commitments for two utility-scale onshore wind projects in Finland: Voimamylly (25.8MW) and Rasakangas (48.0MW). Ilmatar intends to remain the sole owner of the projects.
Finnish energy company Ilmatar is pleased to announce that it has signed long-term project finance agreements with a leading project finance provider in the Nordic region, to fund the construction of its Voimamylly and Rasakangas projects totalling 73.8MW of installed capacity. Ilmatar intends to retain ownership of both projects throughout their lifetime of 30–35 years.
The construction of Voimamylly, located in Humppila and Urjala, and Rasakangas, located in Kurikka, is underway, having begun at the beginning of 2021 and works are proceeding as planned. A total of 50 local workers will be employed during the construction period. Voimamylly’s and Rasakangas’ turbine foundations will be built during summer 2021 and turbines will be installed in the autumn. The wind farms are expected to be connected to the grid and will start producing clean wind power in early 2022.
The projects exemplify Ilmatar’s presence throughout the clean energy value chain: from project development and construction to operation and sales of electricity to consumers and businesses. Ilmatar has negotiated and signed long-term PPAs for both projects and Ilmatar Service will provide long-term asset management services.
“We are very pleased that we found a highly professional lender with a local presence for the projects. PPA-backed project finance provides a stable financing framework for the projects. Ilmatar will continue to own the wind farms well into the future while investing into new projects”, tells Juha Sarsama, CEO of Ilmatar.
Ilmatar is a highly experienced Finnish onshore wind developer and is currently managing the construction of Piiparinmäki (211MW), that is expected to reach full commercial operation in 2021. Two further projects, Louhukangas and Möksy, totalling more than 200MW, will also enter construction later in 2021. Ilmatar aims to add over 1GW of new domestic wind power production to the grid by 2027 and is on track to become Finland’s leading renewable energy platform.