New base is forerunner to planned Weser offshore port
The handling of big boxships will not be impaired by the temporary offshore wind farm construction base.
Part of Bremerhaven Container Terminal is being leased to wind energy firm RWE Innogy as an interim construction and assembly base for offshore wind turbines until the Weser can build an offshore port by about 2015.
Terminal operator Eurogate said it would lease a 17 hectare section of Container Terminal 1 at Bremerhaven’s Wilhelm Kaisen Container Terminal, for two years from mid 2011. It will be used to assemble 48 wind turbines for transport to RWE’s first offshore wind farm, which is due to start operation in 2013.
The terminal boasts 400m of quayside which local authorities said they will upgrade for offshore use at a cost of €3.5m. The quay will host RWE’s first €100m offshore construction ship, due into service next year.
Eurogate said the mooring area sub-surface needed strengthening, terminal areas prepared, containers moved, some container gantries disconnected and moved, and office space made available.
Chairman Emanuel Schiffer said the handling of big boxships would be ‘in no way impaired’. Spokeswoman Corinna Romke told MJ, ‘The terminal will probably look much the same as it does today. To date, only a contract covering the use of the space has been signed’.
Schiffer termed the lease a ‘temporary solution’ and local officials also stressed the interim nature of the RWE deal. They said it was to give the state of Bremen time to build a new offshore port. ‘The solution now agreed is well in time to secure further development’, said State Economics and Ports Senator Martin Günthner.
The new port will be more like a shipyard than a port, a logistics interface for production, assembly and offshore installation. It will cost €250 to €350m, which it is hoped will be raised privately, and is planned for completion by 2014-2015. No operator has yet been named but local officials reported global interest already. Several suitable sites are also already being looked at and a location decision was tipped for as early as the middle of this month.
Martin Günthner stressed the state wanted to establish Bremerhaven as ‘a top address for wind energy in the long term’ and that required ‘an independent offshore harbour’. By Tom Todd
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