Vattenfall Buys German Offshore Wind Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Swedish energy major Vattenfall has bought the Global Tech II offshore wind project located in the German North Sea for an undisclosed sum.

Located about 85 kilometres (km) north of the island of Borkum, Global Tech II will boast 79 wind turbines with a rated capacity of 5 megawatts (MW) each. The 395- MW windfarm will cover an area of approximately 47 square kilometres. Industrial Info estimates that the windfarm will cost just under $2 billion to construct.

"The acquisition underlines once more that our growth ambitions in wind are under full steam," said Gunnar Groebler, senior vice president and head of business area wind at Vattenfall. "As a company we are on a good way to reshape our generation portfolio towards more renewable energies in all our markets."

The Global Tech II project is owned by Northern Energy Global Tech II, which Vattenfall has now acquired from Erste Nordsee-Offshore-Holding, a joint subsidiary of Austrian company STRABAG SE (Vienna) and partners.

The project will only go ahead if it obtains a capacity contract from the German government in the forthcoming tendering process, with the first auction in March 2017 and the second auction in March 2018.

Groebler added: "With Global Tech II we also send a signal that we strongly believe in the German market. In particular we consider the new German tender system beneficial to the development of wind as it is more cost efficient, which will also lead to further acceptance of this effective and renewable power generation."

Germany has overtaken the U.K. in recent years for the rollout of new offshore wind projects. This year will be another record year for Europe's offshore wind industry, according to the latest statistics from industry body WindEurope. Final investment decisions for seven large wind projects were completed in the first half of the year, which will fund the building of 3.7 gigawatts (GW) of new offshore capacity--more than double that tracked for the same period last year. For additional information, see July 29, 2016, article - European Offshore Wind Projects Top $15.5 Billion.

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