The Blauwwind Consortium announced Financial Close on the Borssele III/IV wind farms in the Dutch North Sea, Van Oord said in its press release. This sets in motion the construction and subsequent operation of 77 V164 9.5 megawatt (MW) turbines produced by MHI Vestas, with a total installed capacity of 731.5MW, enough to power some 825,000 households. Total expected production is 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year. The main construction work is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2019, with commercial production expected in early 2021.
The consortium partners are Partners Group (45%), Shell (20%), DGE (15%), Eneco Group (10%) and Van Oord (10%). Shell and Eneco Group have also secured 15-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) from the Consortium, under which each will buy 50% of the power generated by the wind farms. Van Oord will execute the “Balance of Plant” for the project, consisting of the engineering, procurement and construction of the foundations and inter array cables. The offshore substation Borssele Beta will be designed and constructed by TenneT.
During the first 15 years of operation, Blauwwind will receive a guaranteed price of €54.49/MWh under the Dutch SDE+ scheme, after which the power will be sold at prevailing rates in the wholesale power market. The project capex for the construction phase is €1.3 billion, part of which will be funded through project finance.