This is especially true in Germany. That explains why 50Hertz, one of Germany’s four transmission grid operators, is aiming to invest €21 billion by 2028 – four times more than it invested in the previous five years. Much infrastructure calls for massive investments so that it can adapt to the transportation of renewable energy: not only because it is mostly generated in offshore wind farms in the German Sea that are further away from demand centres inland, but also because it is much more volatile than fossil fuels. In other words, the grid not only needs to be expanded, but also enhanced.

“That’s a huge challenge. Nobody has done that before, and these numbers are mind-boggling. Nevertheless, we took up the challenge,” says Leonhard Bayer, Head of Treasury at 50Hertz/Eurogrid, which is a subsidiary owned by Belgian Elia Group (80%), and the German state-owned investment and development bank, KfW Bank Group (20%). “We are reliant on capital markets as the cornerstone of our capital structure, and that’s why we continuously need strong banking partners like BNP Paribas… They have excellent investor access internationally, which is required because only getting the funding from within Germany would not be enough,” he adds.