DLA Piper has acted for Nord LB on the financing of Lilbourne wind farm, developed by Energiekontor.

Lilbourne wind farm is a 10MW site based in Northamptonshire, which was acquired by Energiekontor in Summer 2013 and reached financial close on 18 February 2014. The turbine manufacturer is Senvion (previously known as REpower).

The funding package comes from Nord LB who are providing long term construction and operational facilities of approximately £18m and KfW who provided a term loan of €13m. The transaction also involved a novel end-user 'sleeved' power purchase agreement.

Natasha Luther-Jones (partner, Leeds), led the DLA Piper team with support from Wolfram Distler (partner, Frankfurt), Sandra Gaidies (senior associate, Frankfurt), Robert Hofbauer (counsel, Frankfurt), James Wood-Robertson (senior associate, Leeds), Laura Gordon (senior associate, Leeds) and Rosie Horsewood (associate, Leeds).

Natasha said: "This deal is a fantastic demonstration of how well DLA Piper is able to deliver on multi-jurisdictional project finance transactions, especially in a short timeframe. The arrangement used in this deal is uncommon within the sector and has provided the firm with invaluable experience."

This is the fifth wind farm project in a year to successfully reach financial close where Nord LB has been advised by Leeds-based partner, Natasha Luther-Jones and her team.