Fid Financial Close

In its 10 July 2009 report on offshore wind Renewable Obligation banding, the UK Renewables Advisory Board (RAB) recorded that a group of offshore wind projects, including the 300 MW Thanet offshore wind farm, had "reached financial close last year" and were progressing to completion. "Last year" relative to the July 2009 publication date indicates that Thanet achieved financial close during 2008. RAB used this cohort of recently closed projects to derive a weighted average capital cost estimate of about £3.2 million per MW across six schemes, illustrating both the scale of investment and the inflation in offshore wind costs over 2006–2008.[6][20] This milestone followed earlier project development steps led by Thanet Offshore Wind Limited, a subsidiary of Warwick Energy. In December 2006, Warwick announced that Thanet had received consents from the UK Department of Trade and Industry and Defra for construction and operation, and highlighted that tender documents for major contracts had been issued and key preferred suppliers identified earlier in 2006. The same materials noted an expected total project cost of up to £500 million for 300 MW, with Deutsche Bank already involved as a strategic shareholder and, together with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, appointed as Mandated Lead Arrangers for senior debt financing at financial close, with Deutsche Bank arranging the equity financing.[2][3][4][5] Taken together, these steps show the project moving from consented status and arranged financing structures in 2006 to full project finance close in 2008, providing the committed funding needed for Thanet to proceed through construction toward completion.[6][20]