wpd AG and its financing banks yesterday signed financing contracts in Frankfurt for the Nordergründe offshore project.
According to these contracts, the loans will be provided by KfW IPEX-Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) while 100% of the equity will come from wpd offshore GmbH. This means that the finance for the entire investment of around EUR 410 m for the 111 MW project off the coast of Lower Saxony is secure.
Implementation of the project is already in full swing and will now enter a new phase with the start of production for the major components. Following Baltic 1 and Butendiek, Nordergründe will be the third offshore project to be built by wpd and at the same time the very first German offshore project where all the major elements of the job will be supplied and installed exclusively by manufacturers based in Germany and manufacturing in the North West of the country. As well as Senvion (turbines), the companies involved are Ambau (foundations), BVT (transformer substation), NSW (internal cabling) and Bilfinger (installation).
The offshore construction work will begin in March 2016 and will be completed at the end of 2016 with connection to the grid and feed-in. The project comprising 18 turbines of type Senvion 6.2M126 will be constructed in depths of up to 10 metres within the 12 nautical mile zone in the German North Sea, and it will be situated approx. 15 kilometres north east of the island of Wangerooge.