First turbine installed at Germany’s biggest OSW farm

It is one of Vestas’ flagship 15MW turbines, the largest yet made by the company, which makes the installation a world first.

EnBW says a single rotation of the rotor would be enough to power four households for one day.

Once completed, the wind farm in the North Sea will comprise 64 turbines that will generate 960MW, or enough for 1.1 million households, when the wind blows.

Head of Generation Portfolio Development Michael Class said the farm was EnBW’s largest offshore project to date and was being built without state funding.

“It will play a key role in helping us to achieve our goal of significantly increasing installed output from renewable energies from the current figure of 6.6GW to over 10GW by 2030,” he said.

More than 60 vessels are involved in the building of He Dreiht, which means ‘it spins’, with all 64 foundations installed last year. The components, says EnBW, were loaded on the installation vessel Wind Orca at the port of Esbjerg in Denmark and transported for 12 hours to He Dreiht, which is 85 kilometres of Borkum.

“With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president Vestas Northern & Central Europe.

A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9 percent of the shares in He Dreiht.