An offshore wind farm under development in the North Sea has secured a €500mn syndicated loan from a consortium of German banks, in a deal which won backing from Denmark’s export credit agency.

LBBW, KfW Ipex-Bank and Commerzbank are co-financing the delivery of wind turbines from Danish manufacturer Vestas to the He Dreiht project, while the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) is covering the loan.

The €2.4bn project is slated to be operational from 2025 and according to EnBW – the German utility firm developing the windfarm – will generate electricity for over 1 million households once plugged into the grid from its position 90km northwest of the island of Borkum.

“We are pleased to be assisting our client EnBW with its first ECA-backed loan and helping to bring its largest offshore wind farm in the German North Sea to fruition,” says Kathrin Eich, global head of structured export and trade finance at Commerzbank.

In March, EnBW sold 49.9% of the project to a consortium including Allianz Capital Partners, Danish Investor AIP Management and Norges Bank, which each took a 16.6% stake. The European Investment Bank has also committed €600mn in long-term financing.

ECAs are often charged with aiding exporters seeking to sell into challenging markets, yet increasingly, they are being enlisted to bolster trade in renewable technologies and Denmark has lent considerable support to the sector in recent years.

As reported by GTR in December, Denmark’s agency – then known as EKF prior to an organisational reshuffle and rebrand – was among a syndicate of lenders for the first stage of Australia’s largest wind farm consisting of 122 turbines supplied by Vestas.

Meanwhile, that same month, EKF joined BayernLB in extending a €1bn facility to finance renewable energy supplier RWE’s investment in two offshore wind farms that will power the equivalent of 1.6 million homes in Germany and the UK.

“We are pleased to be able to support Vestas in the first project where the V236-15MW turbine is being used commercially,” says Peter Boeskov, CCO at EIFO, who adds the offshore windfarm is one of the first to be built without subsidies.