Milestone in the North Sea: First turbines at the “EnBW Hohe See” offshore wind farm are installed

Karlsruhe/Borkum/Helgoland. The first wind turbine for the “EnBW Hohe See” offshore wind farm was completed Friday night. The installation of further turbines continues immediately. Since 2010, the energy company based in Karlsruhe has been constructing state-of-the-art and efficient wind farms at sea in order to push forward the Energiewende on land. “Hohe See” and the neighbouring “Albatros” wind farm – another EnBW project – together form a bona fide “wind power plant”. The total of 87 wind turbines with 609 megawatts of installed output are due to be connected to the grid by the end of 2019 and will produce as much energy as a modern gas power plant. The green electricity generated by the wind farms will cover the aggregate requirements of all the private households in Munich.

The erection of the first wind turbine at Hohe See represents an important milestone in the construction work which is moving ahead at pace. The “Brave Tern” installation ship collected the components for the first four wind turbines at the port of Esbjerg in Denmark. After a twelve hour journey to the offshore construction field, the ship installed the first turbine on the foundations that had already been anchored to the seabed. The “Blue Tern” will be supporting the “Brave Tern” over the next few days with the installation work.

“EnBW Hohe See and Albatros are being constructed as one combined project and together represent the largest offshore project currently being realised in Germany”, explains Dr. Hans-Josef Zimmer, Chief Technical Officer of EnBW. “We will place both wind farms into operation in 2019.” To this end, over 600 employees are working at this large construction site in the middle of the sea. Around 50 ships are also involved in the construction work. This major project is a logistical challenge and is being coordinated by the EnBW offshore subsidiary in Hamburg.

Offshore wind energy will be the most important driver of the expansion of renewable energies over the next few years. EnBW is investing heavily in the expansion of renewable energies as part of its strategy. In the last few years, the company has already installed more than 1,200 megawatts of additional output from renewable sources. EnBW plans to invest more than five billion euros by 2025 in the further expansion of renewable energies in Germany and selected foreign markets. The company aims to realise at least 3,500 megawatts of output in the wind power sector alone – both offshore and onshore – by 2025.

The Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge Inc. holds 49.9 percent of the shares in both wind farms, while EnBW has retained the remaining 50.1 percent in each.