Shell-Partners Consortium Ready to Build Dutch Offshore Wind Farm

A consortium led by Swiss investor Partners Group and Royal Dutch Shell said it has secured financing for the building of a 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) wind farm in the Dutch part of the North Sea.

Shell and consortium partners Eneco, Van Oord and Mitsubishi/DGE were awarded the "Borssele 3 and 4" project in December 2016, at what at the time was the Netherlands’ lowest-ever strike price of 54.50 euro cents per megawatt-hour.

Building of the wind farm, which will have the capacity to power around 825,000 households, will start in the fourth quarter of 2019, with production expected to begin in 2021.

Part of the construction will be financed through project finance, the "Blauwwind" consortium said.

In January, Partners Group took a 45 percent stake in the project, buying partial stakes from Shell, Eneco and Mitsubishi.

Through the sale, Shell halved its stake to 20 percent. Mitsubishi subsidiary DGE now holds a 15 percent stake, while energy company Eneco and offshore builder Van Oord each have 10 percent of the shares.

Reporting by Bart Meijer