The boundless power of wind

The wind blows constantly and strongly on the open sea. In future, giant offshore wind farms will transform this power into electricity. Standing in the open sea, the wind turbines ensure greater and more consistent yields than onshore wind turbines.

As forces of nature, maritime winds and water present a technical challenge for offshore wind farms. The wind turbines’ steel tripod foundations alone weigh up to 1,000 tonnes. Rotors and gears are designed for maximum reliability. Maintenance helicopters will land on the upper deck of the offshore transformer stations, whose actual task is to convert the electricity to the right voltage level. From here the electricity is fed by submarine cables to a land-based grid connection, which transfers the electricity to the overland network. And because increasingly more offshore wind power is being generated that flows to southern Germany, the land-based grid has to be further expanded too.