Many of the largest owners of Norwegian wind power are foreign asset managers. Norwegian wind is considered by giants such as BlackRock and Credit Suisse as a safe, sustainable investment. The largest foreign owner of Norwegian wind power is Germany’s Luxcara, which formally owns wind power plants in Eigersund and Bjerkreim in Rogaland. High electricity prices made many people in Norway angry in 2022. But for Luxcara, the high electricity prices and high wind production contributed to jubilant numbers last year: The operating profit of the company Norsk Vind Skinansfjellet tripled from 2021 to 2022, ending at 28.5 million euros. Bjerkreim Vind also more than tripled its operating profit from 8.7 million euros to 29.8 million euros. Norsk Vind Egersund increased its operating profit from 2.2 million euros to 5.1 million euros. In kroner and øre, the profit from the wind production of the three Luxcara-owned wind power companies amounts to close to NOK 670 million. The owner of 37 of the wind turbines is called Bjerkreim Vind. In 2022, the company had operating income worth NOK 418.6 million. Photo: Hanne Høyland Unknown where the money comes from In recent years, several media outlets have written about the complicated ownership structures in the wind power industry. TV 2 has documented in several cases, including the revelation “Wind Paradise”, how wind power plants in Rogaland are owned from tax havens. The cases inspired, among other things, the creators of “Exit” in season three. A total of 103 wind turbines spread over wind farms in Bjerkreim, Hå and Egersund are formally owned by the private equity fund Luxcara. Alexandra von Bernstoff and Kathrin Oechtering are the founders of the fund, which specializes in investments in renewable energy. Luxcara markets itself to institutional investors with pictures of wind turbines. Photo: Screenshot Tax Justice Norway has tried to get to the bottom of where the financing of the wind farms comes from. The organization concluded that the money primarily comes from loans with funds in the tax haven of Luxembourg. It is unknown who contributed to the equity capital of the wind farms in Bjerkreim and Skinansfjellet. Luxcara has only stated that it comes from an “energy fund for institutional investors”. – It can be very difficult to know who are ultimately the investors here. If there are hedge funds or various partnerships hiding behind it, even Luxcara in Hamburg can have problems knowing who they are, says adviser Gregar Berg-Rolness in Tax Justice Norway. This is the ownership structure in Luxcara The three Norwegian wind companies Norsk Vind Egersund, Norsk Vind Skinansfjellet and Bjerkreim Vind are each owned by a separate Norwegian ownership company (Hyfe Wind, Hyfe Wind 2 and Hyfe Wind 4). The Hyfe companies in Norway are owned by German-registered Hyfe Holding GMBH. This is where the flow of information stops in Norwegian registers. In German company registers, Tax Justice Norway has found that Hyfe Holding HMBH is owned by two German companies with 50 percent ownership each. These are owned by Alexandra von Bernstoff and Kathrin Oechtering respectively. The financing comes mainly from loans with funds in Luxembourg. Source: Vindkraften’s shadow pages (Tax Justice Norway) and the Brønnøysund registers. Does not take dividends – receives tax-free interest income instead Despite the fact that the wind companies in Bjerkreim and Skinansfjellet deliver sky-high profits, none of the profits are shared with the owners in the form of group contributions or dividends. Tax expert Berg-Rolness believes that the owners instead derive the return from interest income on loans that have been raised from funds in Luxembourg. – They would not get a tax deduction from dividends, but they do from interest income. This is a cover-up. If you extract a return on invested capital from the owners via loans, you obtain an unfair tax advantage, says Berg-Rolness. Tax lawyer Gregar Berg-Rolness is an adviser at Tax Justice Norway. He believes it is striking that the foreign-owned companies do not distribute dividends. Photo: Tax Justice Norway Figures from the wind companies’ Norwegian parent companies show that NOK 66.7 million was paid in interest to funds in Luxembourg in 2022. The wind power companies are listed with zero employees, but are signed by CEO Per Ove Skorpen of Norsk Vind. – We have no comment on the results beyond what appears in the annual accounts, writes Skorpen in an e-mail to news. – An electricity price problem – not an ownership problem Mayor Kjetil Slettebø (Sp) in Bjerkreim municipality questions why news mentions the wind power companies’ income at a time when the entire power industry receives huge income. – It is not a surprise that the wind power companies also have profits in the super profit class with today’s electricity price. This is an electricity price problem – not an ownership problem, says Slettebø. Kjetil Slettebø (Sp) believes the production tax could have been higher and that the natural resource tax should have gone directly to the host municipalities, as with hydropower. At the same time, wind power contributes to jobs and development in the municipality, the mayor points out. Photo: Mathias Oppedal The Bjerkreim mayor says that he relates to the fact that the company Norsk Vind says they know the ownership. Although the companies themselves have zero employees, the wind power plants create work related to maintenance and operation in the municipality. – It is legal for German companies or funds in Luxembourg to have made wise investments in Norway. It is therefore important that we organize our tax arrangements and fees in a good way so that the investments also benefit the host municipalities and the welfare state. They absolutely do, says Slettebø. The SP mayor says that wind power has generally contributed NOK 50 million in annual income, important jobs and excess power to the municipality. Without Bjerkreim Vind’s investment of NOK 400 million together with Statnett, a new transformer station would never have come into place so quickly, the mayor reminds. – Then we must not forget to sweep our own door before we accuse foreign players of their investments in Norway. Oljefondet owns and buys up large assets all over the world. KLP, which is the Norwegian municipalities’ insurance company, builds wind turbines in Africa itself, says Slettebø. – Not familiar with the ownership relationships Bjekreim wind farm is located partly in Hå municipality and partly in Bjerkreim municipality. 20 of the turbines are located in Hå, while the rest are located in Bjerkreim. – I have no knowledge of the ownership relationships behind the wind farms. It is Norsk Vind that Hå municipality deals with, says mayor Jonas Skrettingland (KrF) in Hå municipality. Hå mayor Jonas Skrettingland (KrF). Photo: Thomas Ystrøm Facebook’s data centers in Danish Odense and Swedish Luleå are powered by electricity from the wind turbines in Bjerkreim and Hå. What will Hå municipality and the residents get in return for the wind farm? Every year, Hå municipality receives NOK three million from Norsk Vind. The area has also become a hiking area. From next year, there will be a production tax of two øre per kilowatt hour, which will go to the municipality. The mayor acknowledges that he would like more of the value creation to remain in the municipality. – It is the government and the Storting that determine the tax regime, and even though a tax on power production has been introduced, I believe that the tax system does not ensure that a sufficient part of the value creation is left in the municipalities, says Skrettingland.
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Wind power companies triple their profits – unknown funds in tax havens are behind it – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
