Project Finance in Offshore wind – Differences in Risk Approach Between Banks and Utilities

Jérôme Guillet, Managing Director of Green Giraffe, writes about how different types of investors in offshore wind projects perceive risks differently, use different routes to mitigate them, and thus tend to finance projects in different ways.

Differences in Risk Approach Between Banks and Utilities

The offshore wind farm sector is gaining momentum. New projects with a capacity of 866 MW were installed in 2011. However, a uniquely difficult combination of risks has brought about significantly different approaches to project management between banks and utilities. While utilities strive for a high degree of autonomy in terms of structuring the projects, banks call for a direct influence on and total transparency in the project contracts. Understanding these different perspectives will help both sides to cooperate in order to finance the massive pipeline of future projects

Jérôme Guillet co-founded Green Giraffe in 2010 and was a Managing Director until 2021.