Financial close for 487 MW offshore wind project in Belgium UPDATED

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Otary, a Belgian offshore wind development platform, has announced that the 487 MW SeaMade offshore wind project has reached financial close.

SeaMade is owned by Otary, ENGIE Electrabel and Eneco Wind Belgium. Otary is comprised of eight Belgian companies operating in the offshore wind sector - Aspiravi, Deme, Elicio, Green Offshore, Power@Sea, Socofe, SRIW and Z-Kracht.

The project owners have not disclosed details of the financing secured, besides that the financiers include public and private equity investors, while commercial lenders, multilateral institutions and export credit agencies have provided non-recourse debt financing.

UPDATE 5/12: Aspiravi has disclosed that the lenders include Danish export credit agency EKF and the following commercial banks: Santander, Bank of China, Belfius, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Rabobank, ASN Bank, ING, KBC, KfW IPEX, MUFG, Siemens Bank, Société Générale, SMTB and Triodos.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is one of these lenders, having approved a loan of EUR250 million (US$283.7 million), fully guaranteed under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The total project cost is around EUR1.3 billion (US$1.475 billion).

SeaMade will install 58 wind turbines across two sites in the Belgian North Sea, located 40 and 54km from the coast of Ostend. The turbines, supplied by Siemens Gamesa, will be connected through two offshore substations to the Elia Modular Offshore Grid.

Construction activities will commence in summer 2019. Once the wind is operational, scheduled for 2020, it will deliver renewable energy for 485,000 households, allowing for a reduction of more than 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.