CEE Group realizes financing for one of the currently largest solar parks in Germany seated in Döllen with DAL and ENGIE

The Hamburg-based CEE Group, asset manager for renewable energies, has worked with DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing GmbH & Co. KG to implement the financing for a PPA-based solar project in Döllen, Brandenburg. The PPA partner is the globally active ENGIE Group. The Döllen solar park is one of the largest ground-mounted PV parks in Germany. With around 280,000 modules, it will have a peak output of 154.4 megawatts peak (MWp) when completed.

With the support of this project, DAL is expanding its position as an innovation leader in PPA structures. It is financing the Döllen solar park through Deutsche Leasing Finance as lead manager with the consortium partners Sparkasse Oberhessen and Sparkasse Hannover based on a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA). By combining long-term funds from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) with Sparkasse loans, the optimal structure for project financing was achieved.

The PPA contract with the international energy supply company ENGIE has a term of 10 years. ENGIE has been one of the world’s leading providers of power purchase agreements from wind and photovoltaic plants for many years. At the interface between energy producers and energy buyers, the company structures its products to precisely fit the needs of companies that want to use Power Purchase Agreements to achieve their climate goals. Once completed, the Döllen solar farm will supply around 160,000 megawatt hours of “green electricity” per year – equivalent to the consumption of a medium-sized small town with around 64,000 households. Construction of the PV project began in May 2022. Commissioning of this milestone project for sustainable energy generation is scheduled for the first half of 2023.

Milestone project of the energy turnaround realized with experienced partners

Dr. Peer Günzel, Head of Sales Infrastructure & Utilities, DAL: “We are pleased to have been able to support our client CEE Group in this exciting major project and to contribute our expertise in PPA-based financing. We want to expand our market-leading position, also as a competence center of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe for sustainable energy projects. From there, we look forward to further exciting projects in this segment with strong partners like CEE Group.”

Katrin Fuhrmann, Head of Origination at ENGIE: “We are pleased to take another step towards climate neutrality together with CEE Group and DAL. Our partnership approach has enabled us to advance the market integration of renewables even in an extremely volatile market environment characterized by regulatory uncertainties.”

Antje Gruber, Senior Project Manager, DAL: “Managing such a mega project in times of supply chain issues and dislocations in the electricity markets was a real challenge. Many thanks for the very professional and trustful cooperation to the project team of CEE Group and their partners antlike Solar, Goldbeck Solar AG and the module supplier Chint Solar. We would also like to thank Sparkasse Oberhessen and Sparkasse Hannover, on whom we could once again rely in a proven partnership and who completed the bank consortium.”

Detlef Schreiber, CEO of the CEE Group: “The new solar park at the Döllen site impresses with a nominal output of over 154 MWp and at the same time illustrates in this dimension the potential of renewable energies as a central building block of the energy transition. This is indispensable for climate protection and, in view of geopolitical uncertainties, also contributes to energy sovereignty. We are pleased to be able to successfully realize this milestone project, the largest in our portfolio, with the support of our experienced partners DAL and ENGIE in a very cooperative manner.”