Northland Power, a Canadian renewable energy producer, has inked agreements to acquire 55% stake in Gemini offshore wind project with a nameplate capacity of 600MW, located off the coast of the Netherlands in the North Sea.
The agreements were signed with a consortium of developers and contractors including Typhoon Offshore, Siemens, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors (Van Oord), and HVC NV, a joint venture of 48 Dutch municipalities and six water regulatory authorities .
Northland Power plans to develop the Gemini offshore project, which is expected to allow the Netherlands in achieving its 20% renewable energy target by 2020.
Northland Power board of directors chairman James Temerty said that the agreements affirm the company’s commitment to sustainable growth.
“Northland’s entry into the burgeoning offshore wind sector is consistent with our strategy of developing and investing in opportunities with long-term secured revenue contracts with creditworthy counterparties that yield attractive rates of return,” added Temerty.
Of the total project cost of $3.8bn, Northland will invest nearly $400m comprising mezzanine and equity financing, along with credit facility of $32m to secure the project revenue SDE agreements with the Dutch government.
The construction of Gemini is scheduled to begin by late 2014 with commercial operations slated to begin in 2017, following which it is estimated to produce a total output of 2.5TWh annually, which is equivalent to power needed by more than 785,000 households.
Siemens and Van Oord have adopted a two-contract strategy to construct the Gemini project, with Siemens Wind Power supplying the wind turbines, besides providing operations and maintenance services under a long-term service contract.
Van Oord will be responsible for supply and installation of the wind turbine foundations and the entire electrical infrastructure.