China Longyuan, Czech SWH to pour USD 600m in European wind

Power producer China Longyuan Power Group Corp Ltd (HKG:0916) has joined forces with Czech engineering firm SWH Group SE for USD 600 million (EUR 528.2m) in green energy investments across central and eastern Europe, with a focus on wind.

An official agreement has been signed on March 30 during the China-Czech Economic and Trade Cooperation Roundtable in Prague.

In a press release on Tuesday, the wind-focused utility said the collaboration envisages acquiring, financing, developing, building, operating and maintaining wind power assets. The unit of state-owned power producer China Guodian Corp did not specify the targeted capacity or locations, but noted that the projects will be spread across several countries in the region.

Apart from working on the wind power portfolio, China Longyuan and Prague-based SWH will also work on strengthening knowledge exchange and technological cooperation in the fields of solar power generation, biomass, energy conservation and environmental protection, among other areas.

The move aligns with the Going Out policy of the Chinese government, which urges local companies to take advantage of attractive investment and growth opportunities abroad. As part of that scheme, China Longyuan put into operation a 100-MW wind farm in Canada in end-2014 and is currently building a 245-MW park in South Africa, which is due for completion next year.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.880)

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