BREMEN (dpa-AFX) - The wind and solar park developer and operator Energiekontor is pressing ahead with the expansion of its park portfolio. In the first quarter, two wind farms with a total capacity of around 29 megawatts were put into operation, the company announced in Bremen on Monday. In 2023 as a whole, the figure was 76 megawatts. Energiekontor traditionally does not publish key financial figures for the first and third quarters, but only a descriptive report.

The company, which is listed in the small-cap index SDax, confirmed its forecasts for 2024 and 2028. For 2024, the Bremen-based company expects falling earnings after a record year. Earnings before taxes are likely to be "noticeably" lower than in the previous year, it said at the end of March. Energiekontor is targeting between 30 and 70 million euros. Last year, Energiekontor had still achieved 95.5 million euros. The earnings potential is not expected to unfold until 2025 and 2026.

The company cites as a reason that a large proportion of planned UK transactions will probably be postponed until next year due to delays in supra-regional grid expansion. This would result in a shift in earnings of around EUR 60 to 80 million from 2024 to the 2025 financial year. In general, the current difficult environment for new projects is having a negative impact. Long delivery times from turbine and component manufacturers and limited availability of wind turbines are causing delays in the completion and commissioning of projects.

Despite the problems, the Group is planning annual earnings before tax growth averaging 15 percent per year. Earnings before taxes are thus expected to grow to EUR 120 million by the 2028 financial year.

According to Energiekontor, it operates 38 wind and solar parks with a total nominal output of more than 380 megawatts in its own portfolio. At the end of March, a total of 28 building permits for an output of around 863 megawatts were reportedly in place.

In April, the company received approval for a wind farm project in the west of Scotland, among others. The project comprises around 86 megawatts with an additional five megawatts of battery storage, it said. This makes it the largest generation capacity of a single project for Energiekontor./lfi/mne/jha/