First Turbine Up at Germany's Wikinger Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The first turbine has been installed at the 1.4 billion euro ($1.47 billion) Wikinger offshore windfarm in the German Baltic Sea.

Spanish developer Iberdrola S.A. (BMAD:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain) confirmed that it is the first of 70 turbines that will be installed at the project, which is located 34 kilometres (km) northeast of the island of Ruegen. When completed the windfarm will have a total generating capacity of 350 megawatts (MW) and supply enough power for approximately 350,000 homes in the German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania -- roughly 20% of the region's electricity demand. Wikinger is Iberdrola's first offshore windfarm in German waters.

The 5-MW AD-5000-135 turbines will be supplied by Adwen (Bremen, Germany), which is now part of Spanish renewable energy major Gamesa Corporation Technology S.A. (MCE:GAM) (Zamudio, Spain).

Iberdrola said it completed the first phase of the project--installing the jackets, foundations, substation work and initial wiring--in what it called "extreme environmental conditions" and the "polar cold snap that struck the Baltic region in January".

It stated: "This facility faces the northeast coast of the German island of Ruegen, and it will be the company's second offshore windfarm, following the commissioning of the West of Duddon Sands windfarm in the Irish Sea in 2014. Wikinger is having an important effect in the different areas in which the project is being carried out, with approximately 2,000 jobs created for the construction works at the port of Mukran and at the factories where all of the components are being manufactured, both in Germany and Spain."

The AD-5000-135 turbines, manufactured at sites in Bremerhaven and Stade, are the largest in Adwen's portfolio. Comprising a 222-ton nacelle, they feature a rotor with a diameter measuring 135 metres sitting on a 75 metre-tall high tower. Industrial Info reported on the first construction works kicking off this time last year. At that time the project was running a year overdue, due to the postponement of assigned grid capacity by Germany's federal network agency. For additional information, see March 24, 2016, article - Iberdrola Starts Work on Wikinger Offshore Windfarm.

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