Black & Veatch hits financial close on latest Europe wind projects

Financial close achieved on the 16 April 2020 for the Black Lough onshore wind farm, and on the 25 May 2020 for the Three Trees and Enros wind farms, marks the latest Technical Due Diligence success for Black & Veatch Europe’s renewable energy business. The company was working on behalf of ING Bank, a branch of ING-DiBa AG, a major backer of renewable energy and sustainability projects globally.

“We have a wind energy team which understands every stage in the project lifecycle,” said Robbie Gibson, Black & Veatch Europe’s Director for Renewable Energy. “Our expertise in wind energy engineering, operation and economics is what makes us a trusted advisor for this kind of technical due diligence project; and we are extremely pleased to have supported SMR and ING Bank in reaching a successful financial close.”

Black Lough is a 14.1 megawatt (MW), six-turbine array in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Three Tree and Enros are respectively 4.6 MW and 2.3 MW (two and one-turbine) projects in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland. The projects’ sponsor is SMR. Black & Veatch’s technical due diligence team encompassed environmental consulting, civil and electrical engineering evaluations and leading-edge digital wind yield analytics. The team provided ING with a full technical assessment of the project’s sustainability, buildability and profitability. Black & Veatch also delivered construction monitoring services.

The Black Lough, Three Trees and Enros wind farms are some of the last Irish projects to be supported via the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) 2 Scheme, and in order to qualify had to meet tight construction deadlines. SMR’s confidence in the project was such that construction was initiated ahead of financial close. “The delivery of our due diligence while construction was progressing created a unique set of challenges. It required our nimble team to deal with the fast-progressing status of the project,” commented Gregory Dudziak, Head of Wind Energy, Black & Veatch Europe.

Markus Helmes, Vice-President in the Energy – Renewables & Power team in Frankfurt at ING Bank, commented “The professionalism and reliability from SMR and Black & Veatch was crucial for a successful financing execution even during a global pandemic. We are very proud of the achievement, and already look forward to the next opportunities to work together.”

Globally Black & Veatch has supported more than 56 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy projects, including more than 20 GW of new-build owner’s engineer experience. “As well as their own expertise, the Black Lough team had ready access to a wealth of Black & Veatch’s international experience,” added Dudziak, “So we ensured our support to the client was informed by global best practise.”

With Black Lough now operational, Black & Veatch’s support for ING Bank is continuing with technical due diligence and construction monitoring on the Three Trees and Enros windfarms.