Eneco Holding N.V. has applied for a EUR 450 million loan at the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the construction of the 370MW Norther offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea.
The application is currently under appraisal EIB said, without specifying when the final decision will be made.
The Norther wind farm is being developed by Norther NV, a 50-50 joint venture between Eneco and Elicio NV. It will comprise V164-8 MW turbines built by MHI Vestas.
The project is expected to reach financial close after summer of 2016 and to be operational by early 2019.
When commissioned in 2019, the Norther project will be Belgium’s largest wind power plant.
Norther is located approximately 22 kilometres off the coast of Zeebrugge.