Common goal: Development, construction and operation of onshore wind farms with a capacity of several thousand megawatts
Two pioneers within the field of renewable energies, SWM and wpd, join their know-how and financial capabilities to conjointly expand wind energy in Europe. Therefore, although still subject to the approval of competition regulators, SWM takes a stake of 33 percent in wpd’s international onshore wind activities in Europe outside Germany. The Bremen-based project developer and operator maintains subsidiaries in 14 European countries (among others Belgium, Finland, France, Croatia, Poland, Sweden and Spain) with projects in different development phases. The goal is to realize initiated wind farm projects within the coming years and to develop, construct and operate a multitude of further wind farms with a total capacity of several thousand megawatts. (To illustrate: On average, an onshore-wind installed capacity of 1,000 MW can supply about 800.000 households with green electricity, assuming a consumption of 2,500 kWh per household.)
Dr. Kurt Mühlhäuser, CEO of SWM: “wpd is the leading European wind energy company that we have won as a partner and with whom we already have collaborated several times successfully.  The stake in wpd enables SWM to extend its portfolio with the field of wind farm development.  The collaboration allows us to take a further step towards our ambitious goal of expanding renewable energies: Until 2025 we want to generate as much green electricity with our own power plants in order to meet the entire power demand of Munich. Munich will therefore be the first city with a population of more than one million inhabitants that reaches this goal!
wpd AG is one of the leading independent project developers and operators of wind farm projects. Within the three independent business divisions Wind Onshore Germany, Wind Onshore Europe and Wind Offshore wpd develops wind farms with a total capacity of about 16,000 MW that will be developed, financed, constructed and operated.
wpd AG’s executive board: “In order to expand the development of new and existing European wind farm projects outside Germany wpd has looked for a partner who is acting sustainably and is long-term orientated, pursuing common goals and who intends to operate wind farms in Europe. We have found such a partner in SWM and we are looking forward to the collaboration.”
 

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Key facts wpd:
wpd is operator and developer of installations for the generation of renewable energies with a clear focus on wind power, operating in 20 countries worldwide. In total, the company has carried out projects with around 1,400 turbines and an output of 2,1 GW. Currently wpd is planning projects with 7,000 MW in total. More over, the group is one of Europe’s leading offshore developer with a pipeline of 10,000 MW.  One of the first commercial offshore wind plants Baltic I, attended by wpd, has been built last year. wpd develops offshore projects in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France and Italy.
Stadtwerke München (SWM)
Stadtwerke Münchens (SWM) is one the leading energy- and infrastructure companies within Germany. More than a million private households, commercial- and industrial customers benefit daily from SWM services and products. For decades SWM has stood for a safe and resource efficient energy and freshwater supply for Bavaria’s metropolis. SWM has about 7,500 employees and achieved total revenues of about 3,8 Billion Euros within the fiscal year 2010. SWM is a first mover regarding the expansion of renewable energies. Their goal is highly ambitious: By 2025 enough green energy shall be generated by SWM power plants in order to meet Munich’s total electrical energy demands – a total of about 7,5 Billion kWh. Munich will therefore be the first city with a population of more than one million inhabitants that reaches this goal. In order to realize this goal SWM has started a renewable energy expansion campaign – with great success. With its already initiated or realized projects SWM will have a total generation capacity of about 2,4 Billion kWh of green energy. This amount will already allow SWM to supply 800,000 thousand households in Munich and moreover to meet the entire demand of Munich’s subways and streetcars. This means a sevenfold increase of SWM’s green power generation! All in all SWM will invest about 9 Billion Euros in the expansion of renewable energies.
For further information  www.swm.de