Germany Opens 'Offshore Wind Island'

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The German island of Heligoland is fast becoming the hub of German North Sea windfarm development, following the official opening of RWE Innogy's (Essen, Germany) service and operating center.

Uwe Beckmeyer, parliamentary under-secretary of state, with Federal Minister of Economics and Energy Sigmar Gabriel, officially inaugurated the facility, which will service and maintain the Nordsee Ost windfarm, which is under construction 30 kilometers (km) north of the island. RWE is one of three German energy majors developing service and maintenance operations on the island, which is located 40 km off the German coast. The southern Heligoland port will see the construction of three facilities on a 10,000 square-meter site. RWE Innogy's Nordsee Ost offshore windfarm will have an installed capacity of 295 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to about 300,000 homes.

"The reform of the German Renewable Energy Act has created clarity on future policies and a reliable planning base for the offshore wind industry," Beckmeyer stated. "It is now important that we achieve our development targets quickly and take the industry's learning curve forward. As construction and maintenance of new plants can now be optimized, costs can be reduced in the medium term. RWE Innogy's experience gathered with the new service and maintenance base on Heligoland will also make a contribution towards this aim."

"Today's inauguration makes Heligoland officially our home port for the successful operation of our Nordsee Ost windfarm", added Hans Bünting, managing director of RWE Innogy. "Together with our local partners, we erected a modern service building exclusively with sustainable materials within an extremely short period of time."

In late 2011, RWE Innogy, E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany, and WindMW GmbH (Bremerhaven, Germany), joined forces to announce the proposed giant maintenance and operations base for their combined offshore windfarms at the southern port on Heligoland. It will service three windfarms, with a combined generating capacity of 871 MW, including RWE's Nordsee Ost (295 MW), E.ON's Amrumbank West (288 MW) and the Süd and Meerwind Ost (288 MW), which is being built by WindMW. For additional information, see August 8, 2011, article-- German Energy Giants Prepare For North Sea Wind.

Offshore windfarms require far more maintenance than onshore windfarms, thanks to waves, seawater and rougher weather. According to RWE, a wind-power system in the open sea requires 4-5 days of maintenance per year, and the foundation structures above and under water also have to be inspected on a regular basis. More than 50 service staff are now in place at the new Heligoland facility.

Last week, Industrial Info reported that Canada's Northland Power (Toronto, Canada) has agreed to take an 85% stake in the Nordsee cluster of projects, which will have a generating capacity of almost 1,000 MW. For additional information, see September 10, 2014, article--Northland Power Enters German Offshore Wind Market.

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