Statoil has secured £1.3bn in project financing to support construction of the 402MW Dudgeon offshore wind farm in the UK.
The developer, alongside partners Masdar (35%) and Statkraft (30%), landed limited recourse financing for the project some 32km off Norfolk, England.
Lead arrangers were Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, KfW IPEX, Mizuho, Santander, Siemens Financial Services, Societe Generale and Sumitomo Mitsui.
Dudgeon is the first UK offshore wind farm to obtain project financing under the Contracts for Difference scheme.
Statoil and Statkraft are also participating in the financing through sponsor co-lending. Statkraft will finance its 30% share in the project while Statoil will finance a share of 17.5%.
“Closing such a significant phase of the project’s development so swiftly illustrates the energy industry’s confidence in the long-term potential of offshore wind and the increasing sophistication of financing models available to the sector,” said Dudgeon chairman Halfdan Brustad.
Dudgeon will feature 67 Siemens 6MW turbines and is track to go live in the second half of 2017. The initial monopile (pictured) went up in April and construction of the substation is under way.
Image: Statoil
