The Viking Link interconnector between Denmark and GB has won the first ‘green loan’ arising from multiple export credit agency (ECAs), National Grid has announced.

At 472 miles, from the Lincolnshire coast to Western Denmark, the 1.4GW HVDC link being developed by National Grid Ventures and Danish transmission network Energinet will be the world’s longest. The £2 billion project  is underwritten by a ‘cap and floor’ arrangement on income agreed by Ofgem.

The US$743 million ECA-backed financing package, made up of US$488 million from SACE Export Credit and US$255 million from Euler Hermes Export Credit, was structured under National Grid’s Green Financing Framework. It says this is the first time multiple ECAs have come together to finance a green project of this size.

The project moved into the construction phase last year when the developers signed ‘engineer, procure, construct’ contracts with Siemens, NKT and Prysmian. Completion was expected by the end of 2023.

Viking Link has been included on the European Union list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI).

National Grid claims that by 2030, 90% of electricity imported via its interconnectors will be from zero carbon sources.

The facilities are structured by BNP Paribas’ Corporate & Institutional Bank (CIB) in its role as Structuring Bank, Bookrunner, Mandated Lead Arranger and Lender of both facilities, and Euler Hermes Agent, which was joined by HSBC Bank plc as Bookrunner, MLA, Lender and Agent of the SACE Export Credit and by Natwest as Bookrunner, Mandated Lead Arranger, Lender and Facility Agent of the Euler Hermes Export Credit. The banks, SACE and SIMEST were advised by Clifford Chance, and National Grid was advised by Linklaters.