SgurrEnergy, has been selected as lender’s technical and environmental advisor to an international banking consortium for the £750m Lincs offshore wind farm.
The high profile project, which is in construction, will comprise 75 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 3.6MW wind turbines when completed, and uses a pioneering wind turbine foundation design. Lincs is the first project financed offshore wind farm in the UK to be financed pre-completion and full project completion is expected in 2013.
During the financing process, SgurrEnergy undertook a full technical review of the wind farm design, installation method and contractual structure, together with a review of the financial and energy yield assumptions, and environmental considerations. Work included construction monitoring and the assessment of delay scenarios as the construction progressed.
Senior Engineer at SgurrEnergy, David Hamdy, said of the project: “Of the current offshore wind farms for which SgurrEnergy is acting as Lenders engineer, the Lincs project is at the most advanced stage of construction.
Due to the nature of the project, a number of technical issues were highlighted in our due diligence. However, these issues were successfully mitigated, and SgurrEnergy will continue to ensure that the lenders to the project receive robust advice and support throughout the remainder of construction and into the operational phase.”
Amit Dewan, Managing Director, UniCredit Bank AG said, “SgurrEnergy worked closely with UniCredit to identify critical issues and develop solutions to ensure all concerns of the banks were properly addressed. With the project under construction, the SgurrEnergy team was very responsive to ensure that the analysis on the latest available information was provided to the banks. We thank all members of the SgurrEnergy team for significantly contributing to the success of the Lincs project.”
The Lincs wind farm, developed by Centrica, Dong Energy and Siemens Project Ventures, is being constructed 8km from the Lincolnshire coast. Once complete, the wind farm will meet the annual power consumption requirements of up to 200,000 British households, significantly reducing CO2 emissions. The majority of wind turbine foundations are now installed and the wind farm will begin generating power later in the year.