The solar and wind power funds of Commerz Real generated 2,512 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity in 2019. This is about 3.5 times as much as in the previous year (704 GWh) and corresponds to the average annual consumption of some 807,000 private German households, based on the figures from the German Federal Statistics Office from 2017. In addition, the solar and wind farms attained a reduction of about 1.2 million tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions (calculated using the emissions factor of Germany’s Federal Environment Agency for the German fuel mix in 2012).
Commerz Real first invested in solar energy as long ago as 2005 under the CFB brand and since 2016 has also been investing in wind turbines and other energy infrastructure segments for institutional investors. At present the asset manager of the Commerzbank Group for real asset investments manages 50 solar power stations as well as thirteen onshore and offshore wind farms. Their total nominal capacity is about 1 gigawatt. According to the International Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO) this corresponds to the average output of a nuclear power station. The largest single transaction in 2019 was the acquisition of the offshore wind farm Veja Meta together with the Swedish Ingka Group; the two companies are the largest shareholders in a consortium and each have a stake of more than 200 million euros.