Linklaters has advised the sponsors on the £1.3billion project financing for one of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms, being developed off the UK coast.

The 402-megawatt Dudgeon project, under construction off the north Norfolk coast, is the first offshore wind farm to obtain financing under the UK government’s new contract for difference (CfD) system for supporting renewables. Linklaters is also advising on the Beatrice offshore windfarm financing, the MGT biomass project and a number of other project financings contemplated for CfD projects.

Dudgeon is being developed by the Norwegian oil & gas company Statoil (35%), Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar (35%), and Norway’s state-owned electricity company Statkraft (30%).

On schedule to begin commercial operations by the second half of 2017, Dudgeon will deliver annual production of 1.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, the combined output of 67 wind turbines. That is sufficient clean energy to power an estimated 410,000 UK homes and displace 893,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

John Pickett, Projects partner at Linklaters, said: “The deal demonstrates the market confidence in the long-term potential in Europe’s offshore wind industry and puts a seal of approval on the UK’s CfD mechanism. There’s a huge amount of interest in renewable projects at the moment and we’re expecting 2016 to be a stand-out year.”

The Linklaters team was led by Projects partner John Pickett and included managing associates  Matthew Daffurn and Melinda Inserra.