Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The European Investment Bank may lend as much as 300 million pounds ($496 million) to help link offshore wind parks to the U.K.’s power grid as Britain aims to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

The loans would be given to 13 bidders in tenders to own and operate power cables from six wind farms being built by companies including Scottish & Southern Energy Plc, the U.K. energy regulator said in an e-mailed statement today.

“This money would help projects currently under construction get their cables in the water and feeding into the grid quickly and cheaply,” Energy Minister Phil Hunt said in the statement.

The six projects have a capacity of 1.6 gigawatts. The U.K. government has pledged to have 33 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2020 in order meet carbon emissions targets. Linking the wind farms to the mainland will cost 15 billion pounds, according to Ofgem E-Serve, the regulator unit in charge of implementing emissions-reduction policy.

The six projects include Scottish & Southern Energy’s 504- megawatt Greater Gabbard, in the North Sea off England’s east coast. It is a joint venture with RWE Innogy GmbH, the renewable unit of Germany’s second-biggest power company.

Norway’s StatoilHydro ASA and Statkraft AS’s 315-megawatt Sheringham Shoal wind park, the U.K.’s fourth largest offshore wind farm off the Norfolk coast in east England is also eligible.

Connection Costs

The connection costs for the six eligible wind projects could reach 1 billion pounds, Ofgem spokesman Mark Wiltsher said by e-mail. They are scheduled to be producing power within two years, according to the statement.

The funding is part of an Ofgem program to improve competition in offshore connection.

The competitive process “is endeavoring to keep the cost of connection to generators as low as possible,” Ofgem Chairman John Mogg said in the statement.

The EIB will in November consider the funding, accessible to Offshore Transmission Ltd., Macquarie Capital Group Ltd., Balfour Beatty Capital Ltd. and other companies that Ofgem has said can bid to own and manage the wind farm cables.

A final agreement will be made in December, EIB spokeman Richard Willis said by telephone today. The contracts for the EIB loans will be awarded in April with the finance following through “shortly afterwards”, Wiltsher said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 09:53 EDT