Northland Power Inc. announced March 31 that the first wind turbine installed on its 332 MW Nordsee offshore wind farm has successfully started to generate power and is feeding green electricity into the grid.
Installation of the project’s 54 turbines began earlier in March and seven turbines had been installed to that date. Turbine installation was to continue in parallel with the progressive commissioning of the wind turbines.
The project reached financial close in March 2015. All 54 foundation monopiles and transition pieces, as well as the offshore substation and infield cables, were successfully installed in 2016. Northland expects the installation and commissioning of all 54 Nordsee One turbines to be completed by the end of 2017.
Once operational, the 332 MW wind farm is expected to produce an annual output of more than 1,300 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy, enough to supply the equivalent of approximately 400,000 German households. Nordsee One is owned by Northland (85%) and Innogy SE (15%).
The company also announced April 28 that its 600 MW Gemini offshore wind farm had achieved full completion. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under its total budget of EUR 2.8 billion.
All 150 turbines have been operating since October 2016 and, to date, have generated over EUR250 million of net pre-completion revenues. Full completion marks the official end of construction and signifies that all of the terms required to satisfy the project lenders for term conversion have been achieved.
Concurrent with achieving full completion and term conversion of the loan, Gemini has also successfully restructured the project’s EUR 2 billion senior debt. This restructuring is expected to reduce loan margins, remove the original cash sweep requirements in year 5 under the previous mini-perm financing, and significantly improve distributions to Gemini’s owners.
The offshore wind farm is owned by Northland Power (60%), Siemens Financial Services (20%), Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV (10%) and N.V. HVC (10%). Gemini is expected to generate enough clean and renewable energy to meet the needs of 1.5 million people in the Netherlands, and reduce the country’s CO2 emissions by 1.25 million tons per year. Located 85 kilometers from the coast of Groningen, Gemini is one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.