Iberdrola Awards First German Offshore Wind Contracts

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- The first German offshore windfarm project by Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola SA (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain), is moving closer to construction as the company awards contracts for geological surveys.

The company has awarded two contracts worth €18 million ($22 million) to Danish company, GEO, and U.K.-based company, Gardline Group. The firms will conduct full geological seabed surveys of the proposed site in the German Baltic Sea where the 400-megawatt (MW) Wikinger windfarm will be constructed. The surveys will be used to design for the foundations for what will be one of the world's largest deep-water windfarms. The project, which will feature 80 turbines with a rated power of 5 MW each, is expected to cost approximately €1.6 billion ($1.97 billion).

It is almost one year since Iberdrola submitted the final part of its planning application for Wikinger, which will be located approximately 35 kilometres (Km) off the northeast coast of Germany, beside the border with Denmark and near the island of Bornholm. For additional information see August 29, 2011, article - Iberdrola Advances First German Offshore Wind Project.

The vessels used by both companies will take stratigraphic samples of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, requiring 63-metre boreholes to be drilled. They will also conduct seismic surveys using sound waves to determine the structure of the terrain.

"The start of sub-surface drilling is a crucial stage of the project, enabling construction of one of the largest deep-water offshore wind farms in the world," said Keith Anderson, CEO of both ScottishPower Renewables and the Global Offshore Division of Iberdrola. "The outcome of geotechnical testing will provide us with valuable data on the morphology of the seabed, which will directly affect the construction and design of the columns supporting the giant wind turbines".

Iberdrola currently has 11,000 MW worth of windfarms in operation or in development around the world, most of which are located in U.K., Germany and France. The first of the company's large scale offshore projects is the 389 MW West Of Duddon Sands project being developed jointly off the U.K. coast with Danish energy company, Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark). It is expected to be commissioned next year.

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