Work Starts at German Amrumbank Offshore Windfarm

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Energy major E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) has confirmed that construction is underway at its largest German offshore windfarm to date, the 288-megawatt (MW) Amrumbank West project in the North Sea.

The first foundation has been installed 37 kilometres (km) northwest of the island of Heligoland. The company has chartered the MPI Discovery, a self-elevating turbine installation vessel or, jack-up rig, 'for several years', E.ON stated. The rig's ram is used to drive the 60 metre long steel tubular monopile foundations roughly 30 metres into the seabed at water depths of up to 24 metres. The entire foundation structure, which consists of the monopile and the transition piece, weighs about 900 metric tons.

"We're drawing on all the expertise we've gathered from our offshore facilities in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia and from the construction and operation of alpha ventus in Germany, which was the world's first deepwater wind farm," explained Eckhardt Rümmler, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables.

E.ON is hoping to become the 'the cost leader' in building and operating large-scale offshore projects. "Offshore wind is on the road to becoming a reliable and cost-effective source of electricity," Rümmler continued. "Amrumbank West will help take us significantly closer to this goal."

Amrumbank West will cover an area of more than 32 square kilometres -- or 4,700 soccer fields. Costing €1 billion ($1.3 billion) to construct it will sport 80 Siemens' turbines, rated at 3.6 MW, which will generate a total of 288 MW, displacing the equivalent of 740,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually. It is due for commissioning late next summer and will generate enough power for approximately 300,000 households.

The windfarm is one of three projects which will be serviced by the island of Heligoland, which is becoming the key hub for German offshore wind developers. In late 2011, E.ON, RWE Innogy, part of RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) and WindMW GmbH (Bremerhaven, Germany), joined forces to announce the proposed building of a 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: 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.

In August last year, E.ON kicked off construction work on its new offshore wind operations base there, an 1,800 square metre building providing space for offices, changing rooms and storage. Up to 50 staff working in shifts will support the operation of the Amrumbank West windfarm by boat and helicopter. It is due for completion later this summer. For additional information, see August 29, 2013, article - E.ON Joins Work on German Offshore Island.

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