KfW IPEX-Bank is acting as an arranger in a consortium financing for the expansion of wind and solar projects in Germany.

The financing for German asset manager CEE Group amounts to up to €1.6 billion ( US$1.9 billion ), and is being provided in cooperation with UniCredit, CIBC, ING, SMBC, and SEB.

The funds will be used to equip existing wind and solar farms with more powerful turbines and PV modules, thus significantly increasing their total installed capacity in a process called repowering.

The CEE Group plans to increase the capacity of at least 29 of its 45 existing plants ( 17 wind and 28 solar farms throughout Germany with individual plants in France ) from the current 457 megawatts to around 1.1 gigawatts – an increase of more than 140%.

"We are proud to contribute to this large-scale fund financing that sets new standards and allows for the extensive modernization and upgrade of existing wind and solar energy infrastructure in Germany," comments Velibor Marjanovic, a member of the management board of KfW IPEX-Bank. “This underlines our commitment to transforming the economy and society and supports Germany’s resilience and energy independence."

"To our knowledge, this financing structure is unique in the German market for alternative investment funds," says CEE Group chief executive officer Detlef Schreiber. "For the first time, we have achieved consolidation at the portfolio level of the fund – without additional equity from our institutional investors. This not only enables the repayment of various existing credit lines but also secures the complete financing of our ambitious repowering strategy until 2030."

Franjo Salic, chief investment officer of CEE Group, adds: "The megatrend of repowering is absolutely bankable and offers a win-win situation for both equity and debt investors."