Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and Spanish electric utility Iberdrola have agreed to jointly invest €5.2 billion ( US$6.07 billion ) in the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom. Each company will have a 50% stake in what will be one of the world’s largest projects of its kind. They will also co-govern the asset.

Meanwhile, Iberdrola was completing the signing of a £3.6 billion ( US$4.83 billion ) loan with 23 banks and the Danish Export Credit Agency for the project.

The participating banks are: BBVA, HSBC, ING, NatWest, SMBC, MUFG, Bank of China, Crédit Agricole, CaixaBank, Santander, BNP Paribas, Helaba, Barclays, ANZ, Rabobank, FAB, ICO, Abanca, Kutxabank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of Ireland, and CID.

Crédit Agricole CIB and MUFG acted as financial advisers in the transaction, while Allen & Overy served as legal advisers to the borrower. Construction is also being supported by a bridge loan from MUFG and Crédit Agricole.

According to Iberdrola, green financing will cover a substantial part of the €5.2 billion project cost, without consolidating debt in any of the partners’ financial statements. The debt-to-equity ratio is 70%.

The loan will be used to cover the construction costs of the wind turbines, substations, submarine cables, and converter stations, both onshore and offshore. The operating and maintenance costs, before commercial operation scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, will also be financed.

Revenue visibility

The project benefits from long-term revenue security through a 15-year inflation-linked contract for difference awarded in the UK Government’s AR4 and AR6 auctions, as well as a power purchase agreement with Amazon signed in 2024. This combination ensures high revenue visibility over the life of the project.

East Anglia Three is being built in the North Sea, 69 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk ( UK ). It will have 95 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines of 14.7 megawatts each, giving the project an installed capacity of 1,400MW.

Iberdrola and Masdar have a €15 billion strategic partnership to accelerate clean energy deployment across key markets such as the UK, Germany, and the United States. Signed in December 2023, the alliance aims to triple global renewable capacity by 2030.

The partners also recently announced the full energization of the 476MW Baltic Eagle project in Germany.  It will supply around 475,000 households with renewable energy while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 800,000 tonnes per year.