Jun 13 2007
Scottish renewables specialist SgurrEnergy has advised lenders Dexia and Rabobank on a EUR 153million offshore windfarm.
Financial close on the first phase of the Offshore Thorntonbank development which will be located 30km off the Belgium coast near Zeebrugge was reached on 23 May 2007.
The first phase of the offshore windfarm will feature six Repower 5M turbines. It is the first offshore project in Belgium and is expected to be fully operational by October next year.
SgurrEnergy teamed up with Mott MacDonald to perform the energy yield due diligence and carry out a technology assessment on behalf of the consortium of lenders. The work also included a quantification and mitigation of the development risks.
The multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy has already advised the investment consortium on the award-winning 120MW Q7 offshore windfarm in the Netherlands.
Technical Director, Ian Irvine, said: “Our work involved assessing the risks associated with wind turbine technology, energy production and long-term operation of the offshore site.
“Given that the Repower 5M is a relatively new turbine model it was important to provide extensive due diligence to the sponsors and lenders to demonstrate that the turbine would perform to specification in offshore conditions and mitigate risks appropriately.”
SgurrEnergy - whose other specialisms include Bioenergy, Marine energy, Hydro energy, Solar power and Hybrid power systems - is also providing lenders with technical support on a further 600MW of offshore wind projects in the UK and overseas.
The Technical Director added: “The offshore wind industry is undergoing a rapid expansion and we have amassed a wealth of offshore wind knowledge in areas such as turbine design, marinisation and offshore access and offshore wind resource assessment.”