Green Light for Germany's Largest Offshore Development

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Germany's largest windfarm cluster has been green lit for development 40 kilometers (km) north of the island of Juist in the German North Sea.

The German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has approved the construction for the Innogy Nordsee offshore windfarms 2 and 3. The projects, which are owned by RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) will see the construction of 108 additional wind turbines.

In April 2012, the BSH granted RWE Innogy permission to construct Innogy Nordsee 1, the first of the three wind farms, consisting of 54 wind turbines located around 30km north of the island of Helgoland . Innogy Nordsee 2 will consist of 48 wind turbines and Innogy Nordsee 3 of 60 turbines. The windfarms' construction field covers 100sq km in total and with a total of up to 162 wind turbines the cluster will have an installed capacity of approximately 1,000 megawatts (MW).

"The granting of the second and third permits has finalised the development process of Germany's largest offshore wind farm cluster," explained Dr Hans Bünting, CEO of RWE Innogy GmbH. "This represents a successful step forward in our sustainable and value-enhancing project development strategy, in which the Innogy Nordsee windfarm with its three sub-projects plays a prominent role".

A final decision to invest into the construction of Innogy Nordsee 1, now known as Nordsee One, is expected at the beginning of next year and construction could start in 2015. It will RWE's first German offshore wind project.

Last September, Industrial Info reported that German turbine maker, REpower Systems AG (ETR:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany), had secured the contract to supply 54 turbines for the Nordsee One project. It will use Repower's 6M turbines, each with a rated capacity of 6.15 MW. They will generate a total of 332 MW of electricity, enough to power around 324,000 homes.

Last summer, RWE announced that it was postponing Nordsee One blaming uncertainty over ongoing grid connection issues with the government. For additional information see July 31, 2012, article - RWE Delays Nordsee Offshore Project.

View Project Report - 300012972 300085796 300085802

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.