America’s first offshore coastal wind farm, Cape Wind, has secured an additional tranche of project debt.

Natixis and Rabobank are to work with long-term project financial sponsor BTMU to arrange and syndicate the debt, contributing around US$400mn between. The project has already secured US$600mn from EKF, the Danish export credit agency, which was secured in February this year.

Further debt has come from institutional investor Pansion Danmark and turbine supplier Siemens, which have pledged US$200mn and US$100mn, respectively.

BTMU’s project finance director Takaki Sakai says that the sponsors are confident of attracting further debt: “We are pleased that Natixis and Rabobank will join us in this landmark transaction. Further, there is considerable interest in Cape Wind among other commercial banks active in project financing, and we expect to complete the commercial bank syndication in the near future,” he says.

The 130-turbine farm, in the Nantucket Sound off Massachussetts, will have a generation capacity of 468MW and a total project cost of US$2.5bn. Construction is expected to initiate once the entire finance has been secured, with completion due in 2015.

The project has attracted the ire of a host of influential Americans, from Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, to Mitt Romney and businessman Bill Koch. Much of the criticism has been attributed to the detrimental impact on property prices in the upmarket Nantucket area.