Deepwater Wind has raised US$290 million from two lenders to close the financing for its 30-megawatt Block Island wind farm, which will be the first offshore wind project in the US.
Deepwater Wind Block Island, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deepwater Wind, raised the amount from Societe Generale and KeyBank National Association. The financing is in addition to more than US$70 million in equity funding already provided by Deepwater Wind’s existing owners, principally an entity of the D.E. Shaw Group.
Deepwater Wind has now secured all debt and equity funding for the project, which is already under construction. Alstom will supply five sets of its 6-MW offshore wind turbines for the project and has already completed the fabrication in Denmark of all 15 blades for the project.
The wind farm will be located entirely in Rhode Island state waters, generating over 125,000 megawatt-hours annually, enough to power over 17,000 homes. Power will be exported to the mainland electric grid via the 21-mile, bi-directional Block Island Transmission System, a submarine cable proposed to make landfall in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
Deepwater Wind plans to begin offshore installation in the summer of 2015, with the project operational by the end of 2016.