Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, has raised almost $2.3bn of senior debt for the construction of the Vineyard Wind I offshore wind farm.
The company achieved financial closure for the 800MW wind farm by working with nine international and US-based banks.
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The Vineyard Wind I project is located offshore from Massachusetts and will generate enough electricity to power more than 400,000 homes.
Onshore works are due to begin later this year at Barnstable, with offshore works scheduled to start next year.
Vineyard Wind will now provide its contractors with a notice to proceed, which will enable them to hire, train and mobilise staff for both on and offshore construction.
Once operational, the wind farm is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million tonnes a year.
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By GlobalDataThe clean energy generated by the project is due to be delivered to the grid in 2023.
Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said: “Achieving financial close is the most important of all milestones because today, we finally move from talking about offshore wind to delivering offshore wind at scale in the US.
“With the signing of these agreements, we now have everything in place to start construction, launching an industry that will immediately start to create jobs and make a significant contribution to meeting Massachusetts’ carbon pollution reduction targets.”
Spain-based financial service provider Santander advised and invested in the senior debt.
Other investors included Bank of America, JP Morgan, BBVA, NatWest, Crédit Agricole, Natixis, BNP Paribas and MUFG Bank.
The effort for Vineyard Wind was led by the company’s general counsel, Jennifer Simon Lento. Norton Rose Fulbright served as the project’s lead financing counsel.
In May, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a Record of Decision for the project.
