EIB helps achieve financial close on $1.2bn offshore wind farm
The Rentel offshore wind farm off the Harbour of Ostend in Belgium has achieved financial close. The $1.2bn project has garnered £332m of support, or 27% of the project’s budget, from the European Investment Bank for the construction of the farm. The wind farm will consist of 42 Siemens wind turbines, providing 308 MW of energy to the national power grid. The farm will create 1,400 jobs and will encompass 5,614 acres, at depths between 72ft and 188ft. The project will be operational by the end of 2018.

By Anca Gagiuc, Associate Editor

Brussels—The $1.2 billion Rentel offshore wind farm, located less than 25 miles from the Harbor of Ostend in Belgium, has achieved financial close. The European Union is providing a loan of approximately $332 million to support construction of the wind project.

The loan is made through the European Investment Bank, with most of the money guaranteed under the European Fund for Strategic Investments. The EIB will provide approximately 27 percent of the project’s total cost.

The Rentel project will comprise 42 Siemens wind turbines connected to the national power grid through a series of inter-array cables, an offshore substation and an export cable. Once completed, the power station will boast an installed capacity of 308 megawatts, enough to provide sustainable energy to approximately 285,000 Belgian households.

The new wind farm is expected to generate approximately 1,400 direct jobs and another 1,400 indirect jobs during the development and construction stage. Once the facility is operational, 100 new permanent jobs will be created.

The facility will occupy 5,614 acres in water depths between 72 and 118 feet. It will be equipped with the Siemens D7 Platform, a new, larger wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 505 feet—the equivalent of the windspan of two Airbus A380s parked side by side—and a hub height of 347 feet.

The Rentel offshore wind farm is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2018.

Image courtesy of EIB