Boston-based Cape Wind, a company positioned to develop the first offshore wind farm in the US, has arranged a US$600mn loan guarantee from Denmark’s export credit agency, EKF.

Cape Wind expects to have the rest of its financing locked up by the end of the third quarter with construction beginning shortly after completing financing, and initial power production starting in 2016.

“In this case, as in all other wind projects we participate in, we do this in order to help Danish companies by making it possible and attractive for customers abroad to purchase Danish products,” a spokesperson for EKF tells GTR. Denmark-based Siemens Wind Power, a subsidiary of Germany’s Siemens, is supplying the turbines. EKF says wind energy is by far the most important sector for the agency and accounts for more than 50% of its total engagement.

EKF’s loan guarantee follows conditional commitments of US$200mn from the Danish Pension Fund and an undisclosed sum through the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. The US$2.5bn project will be built off the coast of Massachusetts and will produce enough electricity to power half a million homes.

Cape Wind has been fighting legal challenges and government permit hurdles for more than a decade to build America’s first offshore wind farm. The site will be between Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Cape Wind was awarded the lease on Cape Cod in 2010 and the area will be spread over 25 square miles.