Masdar secures backing for UK offshore wind plant

The developers of the Dh6.86 billion, 402-megawatt Dudgeon offshore wind plant in the UK, Masdar and two state-backed Norwegian energy companies, have secured financing for the project.

The project will be funded by £1.3bn in limited-recourse bonds, which were arranged by a consortium of banks including Credit Agricole, Société Générale and BNP Paribas.

Masdar owns a 35 per cent stake in the offshore wind plant. Statoil, a Norwegian government-backed oil and gas company, owns a 35 per cent stake in Dudgeon, while Statkraft, Norway’s state-owned electricity company, owns a 30 per cent stake.

The plant, expected to power about 400,000 homes, will start producing power in the second half of 2017. It will receive subsidies from the UK government as part of its “Contract for Difference” scheme, which aims to reduce the cost of investing in the UK clean energy sector for renewables developers.

Dudgeon comprises 67 wind turbines that are located 32 kilometres off the eastern coast of England.

Masdar also owns a stake in London Array, an offshore wind farm in the UK that, at 630MW, is the world’s largest by output. Masdar owns stakes in clean energy projects totalling 1.7 gigawatts of output.

“The completion of the Dudgeon wind farm will bring Masdar’s gross installed clean energy capacity in the UK to more than 1GW, further evidence of our growing international footprint and the strength of our commitment to the UK renewable energy industry,” said Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdar’s chief executive.

Masdar completed a 30MW project in Egypt in April, and a 1MW project in the Solomon Islands this month.

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