Work Starts at Nordsee One Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Despite numerous delays work is finally underway at Germany's largest offshore windfarm cluster in the waters off the island of Heligoland in the German North Sea.

Turbine supplier Senvion SE (FWB:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany), formerly known as REpower Systems SE (ETR:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany) has confirmed that it has installed the first offshore turbines for the first of three windfarms in the Nordsee Ost cluster. The windfarm, located approximately 35km north of the island of Heligoland, will have 48 of the company's model 6.2M126 turbines. Each turbine has a rated power of 6.15 megawatts (MW). When completed next spring, Nordsee Ost will have a generating capacity of 295 MW and produce enough power for 300,000 homes. The turbines are being erected at a water depth of 22 to 25 meters and all of them will be in place before the end of the year.

"We are delighted that the first turbines for Nordsee Ost are now in the water," said Andreas Nauen, CEO of Senvion SE. "A successful energy revolution needs onshore and offshore and wind power in general needs reliable conditions. We consider the acceleration model currently included in Germany's Renewable Energy Act "EEG 2.0" as reasonable compensation that financing will build on."

The site is divided into three windfarms: Nordsee One (54 turbines), Innogy Nordsee 2 (48 turbines) and Innogy Nordsee 3 (60 turbines). In April 2012, RWE Innogy, part of Germany's second largest power company RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany), was granted permission for the construction of the Nordsee One offshore wind farm by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. It will be RWE's first German offshore wind project.

The three windfarms will feature 162 turbines in total, spread across an areas of 100 square kilometers, and which will provide almost 1,000 MW of renewable energy to the German grid.

The first turbines in Nordsee One were originally due to go live in 2012. However, the project suffered delays getting connected to the grid -- a problem that has led to the postponement of numerous other German offshore wind projects by a number of key power companies. In the summer of 2012, 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.

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