Just a day after acquiring the scheme, Northland Power Inc (TSE:NPI) announced it has reached financial close on the 252-MW Deutsche Bucht (DeBu) offshore wind project in the German North Sea.
The Canadian independent power producer said in a statement on Friday that it has secured all the needed equity and debt funding for the EUR-1.3-billion (USD 1.53bn) project. Ten international commercial lenders, including Banco Santander, KfW IPEX-Bank, Societe Generale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, are providing a EUR-988-million non-recourse construction and term loan that will cover about 75% of DeBu’s total cost.
Northland Power announced on Thursday it has finalised the takeover of British Wind Energy GmbH, which owns the project, from Highland Group Holdings Ltd. The company said then that the total project cost could could increase to EUR 1.4 billion if it decides to proceed with a plan to add two demonstration turbines utilising suction bucket foundations. If this happens, these machines will increase the offshore wind farm’s total capacity by 17 MW.
DeBu will be built off the island of Borkum in the German Exclusive Economic Zone. Northland Power said on Friday that it has awarded the balance of plant contract for the project to Dutch firm Van Oord. At the same time, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will supply and install 31 units of its V164 8.0 MW wind turbines and will also maintain the machines under a long-term service contract.
Construction work is expected to start shortly and the project is scheduled for completing by the end of 2019, when the wind park will be hooked to the 800-MW BorWin Beta offshore converter station. Once up and running, DeBu will be receiving a fixed feed-in tariff subsidy of EUR 184 per MWh for eight years and of EUR 149/MWh for a further five years.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.174)
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