SgurrEnergy hired for 12-year monitoring of Merkur offshore wind farm

Renewable energy consultancy SgurrEnergy will remain involved in the 396-MW Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, after securing a 12-year construction and operational monitoring contract.

The Glasgow, Scotland-based firm will monitor building works and the financial and operational performance of the project to provide regular reporting to the project lenders during construction and the first 10 years of operation, it said on Wednesday.

SgurrEnergy supported the project to financial close in the role of lenders' technical advisor for a consortium of international lenders. Merkur reached financial close earlier this month by securing EUR 1.6 billion (USD 1.8bn) of debt and equity.

The wind farm, which will mark the first large-scale deployment of the GE Haliade 6-MW wind turbine, is to start offshore construction works in early 2017.

The consortium behind the project includes Swiss investment manager Partners Group Holding (SWX:PGHN) with a 50% stake, InfraRed Capital Partners with 25%, DEME Concessions Wind with 12.5%, GE Energy Financial Services with 6.25% and French state-run agency ADEME with 6.25%. Merkur was originally developed by insolvent German firm Windreich GmbH.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.100)

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