Lincs Windfarm in UK gets €525 Million Windfall

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Crucial finance amounting to €525 million ($660 million) has been raised to finish the Lincs offshore windfarm in north-east England.

The 270-megawatt (MW) windfarm lies off the coast of Skegness and is a joint venture between Centrica plc (OTC:CPYYY) (Windsor, England), Denmark's Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) and German engineering giant, Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany), which hold stakes worth 50%, 25% and 25%, respectively.

Ten commercial banks have joined forces to provide the financing needed to finish off the windfarm, which is expected to be commissioned in the first half of next year. It will be capable of generating enough power for approximately 200,000 homes. Work started on the windfarm in 2010 and first power is expected to be produced this summer.

Siemens Energy secured a €120 million ($151 million) grid connection contract for the project back in July 2010. It is overseeing the construction of an offshore and an onshore substation platform. The grid network will comprise two 40-kilometer (km), underground 132-kV cables to connect the turbines to the new substation. Siemens is also the turbine supplier for the project, which will feature 75 wind turbines with a rated capacity of 3.6 MW each. For additional information see July 1, 2010, article - Siemens Wins Grid Connection Contract for Lincs Offshore Wind Project in U.K..

"We're very pleased with the interest and effort the banking group have shown and put into establishing the Lincs project financing," said Morten Hultberg Buchgreitz, acting deputy chief executive of Dong Energy Wind Power. "That the project is still in its construction phase and that a multi-contracting strategy has been chosen adds to the complexity of project financing and makes this milestone quite an accomplishment."

He added: "We see a well-functioning and deep project-financing market for offshore wind projects as one of the important funding sources for the development of the sector".

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