Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance Amsterdam advises Windpark Fryslân with the financing of the costs for the construction of a nearshore wind farm

Clifford Chance Amsterdam has advised Windpark Fryslân since 2017 on the corporate structuring, development financing, project development and project financing of its nearshore wind farm, located in the northern part of the IJsselmeer, south of the Afsluitdijk at Breezanddijk in the Netherlands. The wind farm consists of 89 wind turbines, each with a nominal capacity of 4.3 MW, including the connection of this wind farm to the public electricity grid estimated to generate 382.7 MW. The wind farm is expected to account for more than 70% of the Province of Friesland’s 2020 renewable energy target of 530 MW.

The Clifford Chance team that advised Windpark Fryslân was led by Hein Tonnaer and furthermore consisted of Jaap Koster, Nanette Rutgers, Liesbeth Buiter, Rutger Dekker, Mike Niekoop and Amir Rudbordeh, Moussa Louizi, Iga Mamczarz, Eva Matheij, Johanneke Butijn and Laura Stegeman.

Ten banks and the province of Fryslân together provided financing to Windpark Fryslân. The banks jointly finance around 700 million euros, involved are: ABN Amro, BNG, BNP Paribas, DZ Bank, Helaba, ING, KBC, KfW IPEX, NWB and Rabobank. The province is investing 100 million euros in the wind farm, which provides enough sustainable electricity for all Frisian households. The province of Fryslân participates in the share capital of the wind farm with 20 million euros and also provided a subordinated loan of 80 million euros.

Fryslân wind farm is being built by Zuiderzeewind, a consortium of Van Oord and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. Energy supplier Eneco purchases all sustainable energy from Fryslân Wind Farm over a period of 15 years. The complete project management during the construction and management of the Fryslân Wind Farm was outsourced to Ventolines, an all-round service provider in the sustainable energy market.