Meerwind Süd windfarm installation complete

WindMW is a joint venture between Blackstone Energy Partners (Blackstone’s energy-focused private equity business) and Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH. The Meerwind Süd project comprises 80 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines covering an area of 40km2 in water depths of between 24m and 27m. The 3,500 tonne offshore convertor substation, also completed around the same time, will be connected to the HelWin transmission link. Construction of Meerwind commenced in 2012 and was completed on schedule within 18 months.

Jens Assheur, CEO of WindMW said: “I would like to thank the project’s investors, staff, suppliers and other stakeholders for their significant commitment and support. The completion of the project on schedule and at the highest quality standards is a result of the contributions of all parties involved.”

The 288MW windfarm will produce enough clean power to supply approximately 360,000 homes and help Germany eliminate approximately one million tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Meerwind was the first German offshore wind project to be fully financed by private investors and also the largest German offshore windfarm to achieve a full financial closing. It was also the first to close under Germany’s KfW financing programme, focused on helping the country meet its renewable energy targets by providing debt financing to greenfield energy projects.

The windfarm’s developers are rightly trumpeting the success of both progress and the circumstances mentioned above and the project is not alone in providing a clear indication of how offshore wind is maturing from its early pioneering days and in its own special way laying the foundations for confidence as the industry ventures down the current somewhat dumpy road of progressing to new levels of both quantity and quality.

Sean Klimczak, senior managing director at Blackstone, said: “We are very pleased to have reached this important project milestone, bringing Germany one step closer to meeting its green energy targets. Together with our partners, we would like to thank our suppliers and their hard-working teams for their efforts to make our project vision a reality.”

By Peter Barker