Global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, had advised Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) on the €3 billion financing of the construction of the 1.5 GW Baltica 2 offshore wind farm, located off the Polish cost in the Baltic Sea, between Ustka and Choczewo.
The €3 billion multi-sourced project financing is part of the first phase of the Polish offshore wind programme and has been arranged by 25 international and domestic financial institutions. These included: Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and ING Bank N.V. as Documentation Agent on behalf of the commercial lenders. Additionally, the covered tranche received backing from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark. More than 20 financial institutions provided hedging.
Baltica 2 financing is structured as holding company financing and project documentation has been entered into using a multi-contracting approach, without an EPC wrap structure, which is a market standard in the offshore wind market.
The financing for the construction of Baltica 2 offshore wind farms meets the ‘green loan’ requirements set out in the Green Loan Principles.
Baltica 2 is a 50/50 joint-venture between the largest electricity producer in Poland, PGE, and Ørsted, the largest offshore wind farm developer in the world. The offshore wind farm has a proposed installed capacity of 1.5 MW and will use 107 wind turbines.
Baltica 2 offshore wind farm is the largest offshore wind farm under construction in the Baltic Sea, one of the largest offshore wind farms constructed in Europe, and the largest offshore wind farm in the first phase of the Polish offshore wind programme (which assumes 5.9 GW of operational capacity by 2030). It is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of 2027 and is estimated to meet the electricity needs of approximately 2.5 million households.
44 lawyers across five Norton Rose Fulbright offices advised on this offshore wind transaction in Poland, offering support in relation to finance and hedging documentation, energy regulatory and legal due diligence, and state-aid issues.
The cross-jurisdictional transaction was led and supervised by Tomasz Rogalski, Partner and Head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Warsaw Energy and Project Finance Practice, Rob Marsh, Partner and Norton Rose Fulbright’s Global Co-head of Energy, Melusi Dlamini and Ben Carrozzi, Partners, and Christopher Aird, Senior Associate.
Tomasz Rogalski commented: “We were delighted to have assisted PGE on projects and finance aspects of the 1.5 GW Baltica-2 offshore wind farm holdco financing in Poland. This transaction is a milestone for the Polish offshore wind programme and underlines PGE and Poland’s green energy transition ambitions. More than 40 lawyers across 5 offices at Norton Rose Fulbright assisted on this financing.”
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