The Northwester 2 offshore wind farm, located 50km off the coast of the Flanders region of Belgium, has successfully achieved financial close. Mott MacDonald is lenders’ technical advisor on the scheme and will now monitor construction and operations in an ongoing role.
Consisting of 23 wind turbine generators, Northwester 2 will be capable of producing 219MW of clean electricity annually once operational. This project will be the fourth Belgian offshore wind farm in the North Sea for Parkwind. To date, Mott MacDonald has been acting as lenders’ technical advisor on all four of Parkwind’s offshore wind projects.
As lenders’ technical advisor, Mott MacDonald performed a complete technical, environmental and commercial due diligence of Northwester 2 during its financing stage. This included reviewing the project’s participants, design and technology, civil and electrical design, wind turbine generators and grid connection solution. The consultancy also produced a bankable energy yield report which considered the existing and future neighbouring offshore wind projects. Other duties Mott MacDonald performed included reviews of construction and operation agreements, environmental and social plans and the scheme’s financial model, including an assessment of the construction contingency through different scenarios.
Sébastien Sandmark, Mott MacDonald’s project manager, said: “It is fantastic to be able to deliver further renewable energy capacity to Belgium following our involvement in other wind farms such as Belwind, Nobelwind, Northwind, Norther and Rentel. Northwester 2 will power around 220 000 homes every year.”
Northwester 2 wind farm is expected to enter commercial operation during the first half of 2020.