DOE confirms loan guarantee for 360 MW of Cape Wind offshore

Jul 2, 2014 - The US Department of Energy (DOE) said Tuesday it will provide a USD-150-million (EUR 110m) loan guarantee for over 360 MW of capacity at the Cape Wind wind farm off Massachusetts, thus confirming earlier media reports.

The DOE financial support will be offered for 101 of the 130 Siemens turbines planned to be installed in Nantucket Sound, Bloomberg said Tuesday, citing Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers. The developer will have to finance the remaining 29 machines separately after securing a power purchase agreement (PPA) for their output. Currently, the project has two PPA’s with Nstar, a unit of Northeast Utilities (NYSE:NU), and with UK utility National Grid (LON:NG) in Massachusetts.

The 468-MW Cape Wind project, which calls for an investment of USD 2.6 billion, is being developed by Cape Wind Associates LLC, a joint venture of Energy Management and First Wind Energy LLC. It will get the DOE loan guarantee after obtaining the rest of the needed financing, the executive director of the DOE’s Loan Programs Office Peter W Davidson told Bloomberg earlier this week. The DOE will continue to monitor Cape Wind’s development and will “work to reach final agreement before closing the loan guarantee,” according to a press release.

So far, Cape Wind’s debt arrangers include French bank Natixis (EPA:KN), the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Danish export credit agency Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF), PensionDanmark and German engineering group Siemens (ETR:SIE), which is also the turbine supplier.

Construction of the huge wind park is expected to kick off next year, while commercial operations are scheduled for the late summer of 2016.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.731)

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