The financing of the facility demanded a total investment of approx. 4.7 mill. €. Two — thirds of the total investment was covered by a loan and about one third was raised by shareholder’s capital. Working within the framework of the citizen investment model, the Sparkasse Fuerth took charge of the external financing and the acquisi­tion of investors.

The project was placed on the capital market as closed funds. The WPD Regenera­tive Energien GmbH conceptualized the sales brochure and took over the commer­cial project controlling. The invested-in company was, in cooperation with a joint practice of lawyers, fiscally optimized but in view of the income tax law it did not rep­resent a loss allocation company but rather a return fund.

With a closed fund in the legal form of a limited liability company and cooperative lim­ited partnership, the limited partner’s interest share was sold to the capital investor. The selling and transferring of the partner’s interest shares was done by the WPD Vertrieb GmbH.

The project was marketed as the citizen investment model. The minimum investment sum was 5.000€. The distribution was made by the Sparkasse Fuerth. The neces­sary shareholder’s capital amounted to around 1.5 to 1.6 mill. €. Around a third of this amount was covered by the financial engagement of the city of Fuerth with a contribution of 500,000 €. The rest of the necessary capital amounting to approx. 1.2 mill. € was secured from approx. 120 citizens within 2 months after the start of con­struction of the facility.

Construction start: with official ground breaking ceremony on the 26.09.03 Construction period: 3 months Start of operation: in Dec. 2003