Energy major EnBW has secured €500m ($546.74m) in a syndicated loan from a consortium of LBBW, KfW IPEX-Bank, Commerzbank and Danish growth fund EIFO to support the 960MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm off the coast of Germany.
He Dreiht is being built with a total investment of €2.4bn and will be located 90km north-west of the North Sea island of Borkum.
Expected to be connected to the grid in 2025, the offshore wind farm will generate enough clean energy to supply 1.1 million households.
EnBW states that the loan can be considered as a rare case of export finance being deployed in Germany and financed from Germany.
The loan’s innovative structure showcases the adaptability of traditional export finance.
EnBW finance, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations senior vice-president Marcel Münch stated: “EnBW has been demonstrating its offshore wind expertise for more than a decade. We have already commissioned around 1GW of installed capacity during this time.
“For our new 960MW wind farm, EnBW He Dreiht, the €500m loan from LBBW, KfW IPEX-Bank and Commerzbank, covered by EIFO, is another key building block in the long-term financing of EnBW AG, which we have now successfully concluded with this step.
“The loan underlines the confidence of the three banks and EIFO in our sustainable corporate strategy with a clear decarbonisation path.”
In March 2023, EnBW made the final investment decision on the project. A consortium of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP and Norges Bank Investment Management had acquired 49.9% of the project.
The He Dreiht wind farm will be powered by 64 Vestas V236-15 turbines, each with 15MW of power-generating capacity.
It will also be the first wind farm to use the 15MW variant from the Danish wind turbine maker.
With a hub height of 142m, the rotor has a diameter of 236m and covers 43,742m² per revolution.
Dutch-German grid operator TenneT will connect the wind farm to the grid using an offshore converter station and two high-voltage direct current export cables.
NKT, a Denmark-based cables manufacturer, was selected by TenneT for the supply of onshore and offshore cables.
