The $700m Nobelwind wind farm, located 45km off Belgium’s west coast, has reached financial close.
The wind farm, located off the port of Ostend, will be made up of 50 3.3MW Vestas turbines providing a total capacity of 165MW.
It will be connected to the Belgian power grid through an export cable and will be capable of providing renewable energy to up to 186,000 households.
UK-based engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald acted as lender’s technical adviser during the project’s financing and will now monitor construction.
Marios Papalexandrou, Mott MacDonald’s project manager, said: "Our technical, environmental and commercial review under very strict timelines played a key role in the project reaching this milestone.
"Nobelwind will be Belgium’s fourth large-scale offshore wind farm to become a reality and we are proud to have been involved in the three previous ones: Belwind, Northwind and Thornton Bank, which are now all fully operational."
Construction is due to be completed by the end of 2017.
Image: A wind farm in Tarcienne, Belgium (Jean-Pol Grandmont/Wikimedia Commons)
