First Turbine for Baltic 2 Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Turbine installation is underway at the Baltic 2 offshore windfarm in the German Baltic Sea. The project is in line for another financial boost from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The first of 80 turbines has been installed at the 288-megawatt (MW) windfarm, which is located 32 kilometers north of the Baltic Sea island of Rügen. It is being developed by EnBW Baltic 2 GmbH, part of Germany's third largest energy utility, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) (Karlsruhe, Germany). When completed, the windfarm will be the largest offshore development in the German Baltic Sea and will generate 1.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) a year, which is enough to power about 340,000 homes.

The project received a crucial investment loan of 500 million euros ($668 million) from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in January last year. For additional information, see January 18, 2013, article--EIB Loans €500 Million to Baltic 2 Offshore Windfarm. EnBW has now confirmed that it is seeking another financial boost of 250 million euros ($328 million) to help finish the project, which is estimated to be worth around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion). The EIB said that the new loan application is under appraisal.

"EnBW aims to expand significantly its share of renewable energies," said EnBW Chief Technology Officer Hans-Josef Zimmer, on the occasion of the first turbine's installation. "Offshore wind energy is an important element here. EnBW Baltic 2 is one of our flagship projects in the field of renewable energies and brings us on our way to expand the wind power at sea and onshore by a significant amount."

EnBW explained that the position of Baltic 2 makes it a challenging project, with water depths of up to 44 meters, which require the use of special jacket foundations. The company already operates the Baltic 1 offshore windfarm in much shallower waters, but Baltic 2 is significantly larger, with four times as many turbines and six times the generation capacity.

Work on Baltic 2 began in earnest in August 2013, when the "Goliath" installation platform left Rostock port to start installing the jackets. For additional information, see August 26, 2013, article--a href="article.jsp?newsitemID=237740"target="_blank">Work Starts on 288 MW Baltic 2 Windfarm.

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