DLA Piper advises BASF on partnership with Vattenfall for German offshore wind farms Nordlicht 1 and 2

DLA Piper is advising BASF on a partnership with Vattenfall for the German offshore wind farms Nordlicht 1 and 2, which involves an acquisition of 49% of the project shares from Vattenfall by BASF. Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formally express their joint ambition. Vattenfall will use its share of the fossil free electricity to supply its German customers. BASF will receive almost half of the produced electricity and supply its chemical production sites across Europe, in particular Ludwigshafen.

The Nordlicht wind park zone is located 85 kilometers north of the island of Borkum in the German North Sea and consists of two separate sites: Nordlicht 1 with a capacity of 980 megawatts and Nordlicht 2 with 630 megawatts. Once fully operational, their combined production is expected to be around 6 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, equal to the electricity consumption of 1.6 million German households.

Signing of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2024. The wind farms are expected to be fully operational in 2028.

It is the second time BASF plans to acquire a stake in one of Vattenfall’s offshore wind farms. In 2021, a DLA Piper team led by partners Dr Benjamin Parameswaran and Michael Cieslarczyk already advised BASF on the acquisition of a share of the recently inaugurated Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm in The Netherlands, currently the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

The DLA Piper team is led by partners Dr Benjamin Parameswaran (Corporate, Hamburg) and Michael Cieslarczyk (Energy, Cologne) with counsels Dr Philipp Clemens and Cristina Helena Villafrade (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) in the core team. The team further comprised partners Prof Dr Ludger Giesberts (Public Law, Cologne), Dr Henriette Norda (Employment, Hamburg), Dr Marie-Theres Rämer (Tax, Frankfurt), counsel Christopher Ollech (Energy, Cologne), senior associates Dr Marcel Schmidt (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Albina Daka (Tax, Frankfurt) and associates Dr Elisabeth Spiecker (Energy), Svenja Mayer (Public Law, both Cologne) and Hannah Modi (Employment, Hamburg).

In-house at BASF, the team was led by Dr Stefan Rothweiler, Dr Sabina Krispenz, Alexander Just, Stefanie Lechler and Dr Friederike Frizen.