Offshore wind: 1 B€ bank-financing raised by the AREVA-powered Global Tech I project

The offshore wind project Global Tech I, for which AREVA is supplier of 80 M5000 turbines, has finalized raising debt financing for an amount in excess of 1 B€. This is the second AREVA-powered offshore wind project to achieve this and a new demonstration of the confidence of the financial community in the reliability of AREVA’s M5000 offshore wind platform.

The transaction was signed on July 7th, 2011 with a consortium of 16 commercial banks, the European Investment Bank and KfW, committing to lend 1,047 million euros under several project finance facilities.

Global Tech I is located 90 kilometres from the coast in the German North Sea.. The wind farm will generate 1.4 billion kWh per year, enough to supply 445 000 households with environmentally friendly electricity. Global Tech I will be connected to the national grid in 2012 and fully completed in 2013.

Global Tech I is the largest ever project-financed offshore wind farm, and in view of the distance to shore and water depth, one of the most challenging offshore wind projects in the world. The project financing covers both construction and operation.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of AREVA Renewables, said: “We are very proud to develop jointly with our partners best-in-class wind offshore solutions. The financing of Global Tech I by sixteen European banks demonstrates again the reliability and bankability of AREVA Wind M5000 turbines and this project. It is a new decisive step for AREVA’s rising in the buoyant offshore wind market.”

Tim Kittelhake, Managing Director of Global Tech I, commented: “The combination of a reliable wind turbine, strong and fully committed suppliers, with a very good technical setup of the wind farm and an experienced project developer in addition of strong shareholders shows that the renewable target 2020 of our German Government is bankable. This is a big step for the financing market and the Offshore Wind industry.