332-MW Wind Project for Germany (Part of a 996-MW Offshore Wind Farm)
About 30 miles north of Juist, one of Germany’s East Frisian Islands in the North Sea, is the site of a very large wind farm project. It was just announced that 54 REpower 6M offshore turbines have been ordered for the project.
Each turbine is rated at 6.15 MW, and this type of turbine has been said to be the most powerful one ever used on the high seas. With sufficient wind, just one of them could power 6,000 homes, says the company’s website. (Offshore wind is generally more constant and faster than onshore wind.)
Innogy Nordsee 1, with 54 very large turbines, is just the first phase of the whole proposed project. Innogy Nordsee 2 could have 48 turbines, and the third installation is intended to have 60. The maximum capacity for the entire wind farm, if completed, would be approximately 996 MW. 39 square miles would be the amount of space required to place all the turbines, and the proposed waters range between 85 and 112 feet in depth.
Germany is already one of the world’s leading wind power nations. Its government has set some enormous wind power goals: 7,600 MW by 2020 and 26,000 MW by 2030. (It has been acknowledged, however, that these may be missed.)
“For a second wave of offshore projects to occur, which would produce an additional 6,000 megawatts, the question of equity funding of the responsible grid operators still needs to be clarified, and the master plan for the offshore network implemented without delay,” said Thorstand Herdan, Managing Director of VDMA Power Systems.
Even so, it is more than impressive the country remains so committed to renewable energy development, because it is not the most blessed with sunlight, nor with high, steady winds.
Image Credit: Tomasz Sienicki, Wiki Commons
(The image is actually of a wind farm near Sweden, and is meant only to be an example of offshore wind.)
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Also: Bremen, Germany: This week saw the christening of the “Innovation”, a huge jack-up vessel designed specifically for the buidling of offshore wind turbines. Check the stats via this link: http://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/jack-up-vessel-innovation-christened-germany/ . (I am an employee for the Belgian co-owner of the vessel, and I’ve been following cleantechnica for a while now. Keep up the good work!)
Thanks, that’s an interesting ship. It’s an example of how infrastructure improves and brings prices down as technologies improve. Something that subsidy worrywarts don’t seem to understand.
(And thanks for the disclosure. Feel free to bring us other industry news that you think would be good to share.)
Thanks. I didn’t see that, and it certainly is worth coverage! Thanks. 😀
I don´t see any coverage of the big HeWin project here. If I understand it correctly, HeWin in the North Sea will be Germany´s largest offshore wind facility. In the first trauch, two large inverter platforms built by Siemens, each the size of half a football field 20 meters over the mean sea level of the North Sea, will transform power from the first HeWin traunch around Helgoland Island midway between the North German-Danish peninsula and Great Britain and transmit via HVDC ashore. HeWin 1 will generate 3.5 GW at optimum offshore – 90% utilisation. (auslastung) Two more traiches of 800 and 500 MW are respectively scheduled after that, which will give the Helgoland offshore wind parks a total capacity of 5.1 GW.
Got a link on that? Not sure if I’ve seen it.