Eesti Energia acquires Finnish wind farm in 5-year deal

State-owned energy firm Eesti Energia has signed a long-term purchase agreement with clean energy generator Octopus Renewables, acquiring with it a major wind farm in Finland, over a five-year term starting this year.

Margus Vals, Eesti Energia board member, said that: “This is another landmark deal which brings more green energy to consumers and helps to faster implement the green transition.”

The wind farm, located in Western Finland, is set to begin commercial operations in 2022 and will produce 280 GWh of clean electricity annually.

Eesti Energia and Octopus Renewables deal is for a five-year term and comprises a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) at a 1.4 TWh capacity.

PPAs are necessary for the development of any wind energy project, Eesti Energia reports, as they remove a significant obstacle in providing financial certainty to a developer.

Drew Barrett, Head of Energy Markets at Octopus Renewables, said of the deal that: “As a leading specialist investor in renewables, we’re proud to be able to work with Eesti Energia on this innovative PPA deal.”

“The structure will allow us to proactively manage the power price risk in this exciting, growing and changing market in Finland,” Barrett continued, per an Eesti Energia press release.

The deal is one of the largest PPA deals to have been signed in the Baltics and secures the same level of renewable energy that 425,000 Estonian private consumers would use in a year, Eesti Energia says.

Eesti Energia is to offtake the full production from Octopus’ wind park in Finland starting from 2022.

Octopus Renewables manages more than 300 solar, onshore wind and biomass projects worth over £3.4billion (over €4 billion). It merged into a single Octopus Energy Group in July.

Eesti Energia’s renewables subsidiary is Enefit Green, and the former also signs co-operation and long-term power purchase agreements with other developers involved in clean energy. 

Eesti Energia operates in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, as well as in its home country. It is state-owned; Enefit is the brand name when operating in international markets.