Germany's Offshore Wind Island Progresses

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Plans to turn the North Sea island of Helgoland into the centre of Germany's offshore wind ambitions have advanced this week with news that two energy companies have signed leases to develop large operations and maintenance facilities there.

E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) and WindMW GmbH (Bremerhaven, Germany) have forged ahead by signing agreements with Jorg Singer, the Mayor of Helgoland, to use several plots of land.

Last august, E.ON, WindMW and RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) joined forces to announce that they planned to construct a giant maintenance and operations base for their combined offshore windfarms at the southern port on Helgoland, 40 kilometres off the German coast. The base would be designed to serve a total of three offshore windfarms with a combined generating capacity of 871 MW. The windfarms include 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.

RWE is expected to sign a similar agreement with Helgoland soon.

E.ON's proposals include the expansion of the island's southern harbour to accommodate the new service and storage buildings, as well as outdoor storage areas and jetties. Within the harbour, new piers and breakwater structures will be built. It is expected that up to 150 offshore wind turbine maintenance specialists will be based there when completed.

"Helgoland is very conveniently located and therefore an ideal maintenance base for our Amrumbank West offshore wind farm," explained E.ON's Head of International Offshore business, Sven Utermöhlen. "We are planning to be on Helgoland for the long term. The agreement has a term of 28 years. We are pleased that the island will benefit so much from the infrastructure upgrade."

Economics Minister, Jost de Jager, for the Schleswig-Holstein region, added: "Helgoland is a major building block for Schleswig-Holstein's offshore strategy. Maintenance sites must be as close as possible to the wind farms they serve. No other location can beat the island".

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