The 370MW Norther offshore wind farm off the coast of Belgium has finished its technical completion phase, moving into full commercial operation.
Construction works completed in March of this year on the project, which is located 23km from the Port of Zeebrugge, and comprises 44 8.4MW MHI Vestas V164 turbines.
The Norther consortium also restructured its debt package inline with the project commencing its operational phase and current market conditions.
The debt package is provided by a consortium of lenders that includes the European Investment Bank, the Danish export credit agency EKF, ABN AMRO and BNP Paribas.
Norther stated its thanks to the lenders for their “continuous support, especially in the recent months”, which demonstrates how important strong renewable energy projects will remain for relaunching the economy after the current difficult times”.
The original concession was granted at the end of 2009, which is when the development of the project began, and the project was awarded a subsidy in 2016.
Norther will contribute towards the Belgian 2020 renewable energy targets.
Norther is a project company owned by Elicio (50%), Eneco and Diamond Generating Europe.
Elicio is also involved as a shareholder, via Otary, in the Rentel and Seamade offshore wind projects in Belgium.
Green Giraffe acted as financial advisor to Norther and Loyens & Loeff acted as legal advisor.