Masdar Energy UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Masdar, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company, has completed a 12-year limited-recourse project financing of up to £266 million ($425.8 million) for its stake in phase one of London Array.

The 630-megawatt London Array is the world’s largest offshore wind farm and was inaugurated recently, said a statement.

 It is a 2.2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) unincorporated joint venture between shareholders Dong Energy (50 per cent), E.ON (30 per cent) and Masdar Energy UK (20 per cent), it said.

Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, said: “London Array is delivering half a million UK homes with clean energy. While the financing was a great success, it is critical to the future of the renewable energy industry that we see a deepening level of engagement from the financial sector.

“We need increased collaboration between institutional investors and the renewable energy industry to drive down cost and accelerate adoption.”  

The project financing included five international lenders: The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, KFW-Ipex Bank, Siemens Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the UK Green Investment Bank.

Masdar and its shareholder Mubadala were advised by Norton Rose Fulbright and The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Advisors to the lenders included Allen & Overy  and SgurrEnergy.

London Array, located in the outer Thames Estuary, started generating power in October 2012.  The 175th and final turbine was brought online in March and the wind farm is now supplying around 500,000 UK homes with electricity each year.

More than 75 organisations and 6,700 individuals helped or were involved in delivering London Array. - TradeArabia News Service