Germany Commissions First Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Germany is celebrating the commissioning of its first offshore windfarm, Alpha Ventus, which is located 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of the island of Borkum in the North Sea.

The 60-megawatt (MW) windfarm has 12 turbines, comprising six Areva Multibrid M5000 and six REpower 5M turbines. The 250 million euro ($330 million) project comes a year late and 60 million euros ($79 million) over budget, thanks to construction delays caused by bad weather conditions. The first turbines were installed last July. For additional information, see related July 22, 2009, article - Germany Installs First Offshore Wind Turbine.

Owned by a consortium of companies including E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany); Vattenfall Europe, part of Swedish utility Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden); and EWE AG (Oldenburg), a German energy and gas provider, the Alpha Ventus windfarm will provide enough electricity for about 50,000 households.

"The use of wind power will play a central role in the energy of the future," said German Federal Environment Minister Dr. Norbert Röttgen. "Offshore windfarms will play a critical role. Our goal is an installed offshore capacity of 25,000 MW by 2030. Alpha Ventus is the beginning and opens the door to the age of renewable energy. The construction of Alpha Ventus and the experience gained will benefit all future [offshore] windfarms."

Tuomo Hatakka, CEO of Vattenfall Europe AG, said: "This is a good day for the offshore wind energy in Germany. Our companies have shown great team spirit and with Alpha Ventus demonstrated that the use of offshore wind energy, even under the difficult natural conditions in Germany, is possible."

Germany lags behind many other European nations in the rollout of offshore wind power, especially the U.K., where offshore wind passed the 1-gigawatt mark for the first time this week. For additional information, see related April 26, 2010, article -U.K. Offshore Wind Passes 1-Gigawatt Milestone. Germany, however, has ambitious plans to create a large number of offshore windfarms.

Earlier this month one of the partners on the Alpha Ventus project, EWE, along with partner Enova GmbH & Company KG, part of Norwegian company Enova (Trondheim, Norway), awarded a 30-turbine deal to Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany) for the 108-MW Riffgat windfarm, which is also off the island of Borkum. For additional information, see related April 11, 2010, article - Siemens Secures Turbine Deal for Riffgat Offshore Windfarm.

According to the German Wind Energy Association (Berlin), Germany currently has about 25,000 MW of installed wind capacity, but virtually all of this is onshore. Offshore wind is predicted to grow to 1,500 MW by 2012; 3,000 MW by 2015; and 10,000 MW by 2020. By 2030, the German government wants to have 25,000 MW of offshore wind.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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