Belgian and Dutch investors join EIB and banks in Belwind rescue

(24 Jul 2009)

Banks have signed the most important European renewable energy project financing of 2009 so far, after a band of Low Countries investors bought the Belwind offshore wind farm from the failed Econcern group.

The deal, one of the most encouraging pointers so far that the worst of the credit crunch may be easing for clean energy, sees the European Investment Bank agree to lend EUR 300m towards a EUR 482.5m (USD 686.4m), 15-year debt package for Belwind.

The remaining EUR 182.5m of the long-term debt is being provided by [commercial banks]

This is the transaction I have been working on for over a year and a half and, between my bank's bailout, the credit crunch or my client's bankruptcy, it's been a rather stressful process - and an altogether too busy one, as may have attested my lack of presence on the Oil Drum in recent months.

It's the biggest offshore wind farm to be project-financed, it's the first to be financed that way since the credit crisis (and the third only altogether), and it's the first time the European Investment Bank (a multilateral financial institution, and the EU's official tool to finance large projects in and around the zone) is involved in taking project risk in the sector, following the clear push from EU governments over the past year.