KfW contributing to the financing of the Merkur offshore wind farm

• It is the fifth commitment from the offshore wind energy funding programme
• Successful implementation of the KfW offshore wind energy programme continues

KfW is committing more than EUR 360 million to fund the Merkur offshore wind farm, thereby making a significant contribution to the financing of this project. With this loan commitment, KfW is providing funds for the fifth time from the offshore wind energy programme created on behalf of the Federal Government. The renewed funding commitment in an offshore project confirms the successful implementation of the programme and of the funding objectives in environment and climate protection.

The total investment for the Merkur wind farm is approximately EUR 1.6 billion. In total, an international consortium of ten banks is providing EUR 1.2 billion in debt capital. The project company Merkur Offshore GmbH is the borrower. The company is comprised of the financial investors Partners Group AG, a global manager of private markets investments (50%), and a fund managed by InfraRed Capital Partners Limited in the UK (25%), DEME Concessions Wind (12.5%) and GE Energy Financial Services (6.25%) and L'Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie (ADEME) (6.25%).

With a loan of EUR 97.5 million, KfW IPEX-Bank, the specialist financier for export and project finance, is also taking part in the financing of the project. The total volume of commitments provided by KfW Group thus amounts to EUR 460 million.

The investment is located about 45 km north of the island of Borkum at a water depth of 28–34 metres. The Merkur project features the construction of 66 wind turbines of the Haliade 150 model producing 6 MW each and manufactured by General Electric. With a total installed capacity of 396 megawatts, the wind farm in the North Sea is expected to produce clean electricity for about 500,000 households after its commissioning in 2019.