During recent years, closed-end funds have become one of the dominant financing schemes for wind farms in Germany. Having evolved out of the traditional model of local citizen-financed wind farms ('Burgerwindpark'), closed-end wind funds can be seen as a logical consequence of the increasing professionalism and specialisation trend within the wind business as a whole. This article illustrates the basic market mechanisms behind the project development and financing approach based on closed-end funds and gives an overview on recent market developments in Germany. Finally, the transferability of this approach to other technologies or other regional markets is discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.