The Fosen Vind project is currently the biggest onshore wind power project in Europe. The idea of building wind farms in the wider Trondheim area has long been considered as the area is known to have high winds. Thanks to the close cooperation of Statkraft, TrønderEnergi, BKW and Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners, a focused, well balanced and profitable project has been developed. The farms will be owned by Fosen Vind DA and its 278 turbines will produce around 3400 GWh of electricity each year – equivalent to the annual consumption of around 750,000 Swiss households (based on a 4-room apartment with an electric cooker and electric boiler, an average annual consumption of 4500 kWh can be assumed). Fosen Vind DA is owned by state-owned Norwegian utility Statkraft (52.1%), the consortium Nordic Wind Power DA (40%) and the Trondheim local publicly-owned utility TrønderEnergi (7.9%). The consortium Nordic Wind Power DA was created by Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners (CSEIP), an investment manager focused on the energy sector. The consortium is backed by the large Swiss utility BKW as the industrial partner as well as institutional investors who take a long-term view. “We are pleased to be part of this groundbreaking energy infrastructure investment and believe the consortium brings the right mix of industry know-how and capital to be a long-term reliable partner for the project”, said Dominik Bollier, Managing Partner at Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners. Swiss-based utility BKW aims to further diversify its already extensive wind power portfolio. “We are proud to be part of Europe's biggest onshore wind power project, implementing our strategy of developing renewable energies,” says BKW CEO Suzanne Thoma. The Fosen Vind project allows BKW to build up profitable wind power capacity in Norway and to capitalize on the geographical and regulatory diversity of wind power production. Besides Switzerland, BKW operates wind farms in Germany and Italy, and also in France since 2015. An interview (in German and French only) with BKW CEO Suzanne Thoma regarding the Fosen wind power project can be found here.