Northland Power’s EUR 1.3 billion Deutsche Bucht (DeBu) project has reached financial close, with all of the equity contributed to the project and all debt required for the project now fully committed by the project lenders.
Canada’s Northland owns 100% of the 252MW offshore wind farm which will be located in the German North Sea.
Approximately 75% of the project’s required costs will be provided from a EUR 988 million non-recourse construction and term loan and related loan facilities from ten international commercial lenders. The financing was oversubscribed, Northland said.
The lending group comprises Banco Santander, CIBC, Commerzbank, Helaba, KfW IPEX-Bank, National Bank of Canada, Natixis, Rabobank, Société Générale, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
DeBu is Northland’s third offshore wind project. It is located 77km from Northland’s other German offshore wind project, Nordsee One.
DeBu is entitled to receive a fixed feed-in tariff subsidy for approximately 13 years under the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG), equating to approximately EUR184/MWh for 8 years and EUR149/MWh for the remainder. The majority of the project returns are expected to be earned during the 13 year feed-in-tariff period, with the remainder of the expected returns earned in the later years from the German wholesale electricity market.
The construction of DeBu is expected to begin shortly, with project completion expected by the end of 2019. Like Northland’s 600MW Gemini project, DeBu will use a two-contract construction strategy.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will supply and install the project’s 31 V164 8.0MW wind turbines. MHI Vestas will also maintain the wind turbines under a long-term service contract. DeBu will be connected to the 800MW BorWin Beta offshore converter station which has already been constructed.