The financing has been completed for the development of a massive offshore wind farm in the North Sea near Groningen province.

The Gemini wind farm will have 55 turbines and will be located 55 km north of the Wadden Sea island of Schiermonnikoog. The total cost of the project, which will not be visible from land, is put at €2.8bn, Nos television says.

The turbines will project almost 90m out of the sea and their blades will have a diameter of 130 metres, Nos television says. They will supply electricity for 785,000 households.

Three year project

Preparatory work has already begun and the wind farm should begin producing electricity in 2017.

The owners include Canada’s Northland Power, German engineering group Siemens, Dutch dredging group Van Oord and public utility group HVC.

The four owners have raised €400m of the necessary investment. The rest comes from bank loans, news agency ANP said.

The energy agreement signed by the national and provincial governments envisages the development of several massive offshore wind farms in order to meet green energy targets.

There have been considerable protests about the plans which campaigners say pose a danger to shipping and migrating birds as well as to tourism.