Airport operator Vinci Airports has sold 90.1% of Stockholm Skavsta Airport in Sweden to real-estate developer Swedish Arlandastad Group, which will use 484ha of the land to build solar-power farms.
The agreement is expected to be completed by April 2022 and the development will be undertaken in partnership with the municipality of Nyköping in Sweden, and Vinci Concessions’ subsidiary SunMind. SunMind will develop, finance, build and maintain one solar farm on the airport site, which will cover 100ha and have a capacity of almost 100MWp. Connected to the public grid, it will help supply energy to the municipality of Nyköping.
Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of Vinci Concessions and president of Vinci Airports, commented, “This double success marks both a structuring step for Vinci Concessions’ photovoltaic business and the continuation of our airport strategy, based on investing in assets with high growth potential. We are very pleased to be working with Arlandastad Group, a sound partner to the Nordic photovoltaic market, and a company that will continue the development initiated by Vinci Airports at Stockholm Skavsta, in partnership with the municipality of Nyköping.”
Dieter Sand, president and CEO of Arlandastad Group, said, “This project suits us perfectly; it has the same potential as our project in Arlandastad. Nyköping has a very attractive location with proximity to Stockholm, the E4 [European highway], the Baltic Sea’s deepest port in Oxelösund, the planned Ostlänken railway and, not least, an airport with foreign destinations. The first stage includes an expanded project portfolio of between Skr5bn and Skr10bn [US$0.5bn to US$1bn], a significant addition to our existing project portfolio, which prior to the acquisition amounts to approximately Skr40bn [US$4bn].”
Urban Granstrom, the chairman of Nyköping City Council, said, “Stockholm Skavsta airport is important for the growth in the region. We appreciate the close cooperation we have had with Vinci Airports these past years and are now looking forward to continuing to develop the airport area together with Arlandastad.”
