German energy developer wpd has secured financing for its 111MW Nordergründe offshore wind project in the North Sea from European Investment Bank (EIB) and KfW IPEX bank.

EIB has agreed to support the wind energy development with €156m, while 100% of the equity will be contributed by wpd offshore.

The plant is planned to be built about 16km away from the coast of East Frisia and 14km to east of the island of Wangerooge. It is one of the first offshore wind projects for Germany.

The facillity be equipped with 18 wind turbines from Senvion’s 6.2M126 models.

BVT will deliver the substation for the project, and Ambau will be responsible for the foundations, NSW will look after the internal cabling and Bilfinger will deal with the installations.

Construction has been scheduled to start from March 2016 and is expected to be completed by 2016, with connection to the grid and feed-in.

EIB Germany lending operations vice-president Wilhelm Molterer said: “The financing of renewable energy, particularly offshore wind energy projects, is and will continue to be a key part of the EIB’s work, as it is all about meeting Europe’s ambitious environmental targets.

“Thus, we are glad to support the Nordergründe project, as it will very much contribute to that, as well as improving the security of energy supply in Europe.”

wpd has already started work on the project, which is about to enter a new phase with the start of production of its major components.