Start of construction for EnBW service station in Emden

Stuttgart/Emden. EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG is constructing a service station next to Emden Airport. 40 service technicians will be flown from here by helicopter to the EnBW Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms in future. Both wind farms are currently under construction and will be placed into operation at the end of 2019. The service team in Emden will also be responsible for the maintenance of the planned wind farm He Dreiht. EnBW will create 60 new jobs in total in Emden over the next few years.

“We were convinced by the arguments in favour of Emden. The location and infrastructure make it ideal as a base from which to maintain our North Sea wind farms”, says Michael Splett, Head of Offshore Operations at EnBW.

The two-storey service station will comprise offices and social areas covering an area of almost 550 square metres and a storage warehouse for spare parts and tools. The construction work is due to be finished in summer 2019 when the first employees will move in. The service technicians will work 14 day shifts at the wind farms and then be given 14 days leave. They will live and work on the ship “Bibby Wavemaster Horizon”. The ship is currently being built in Romania and will be out at sea from the end of 2019 for four weeks at a time. It will then return to the harbour in Emden to be restocked with fresh food and water, fuel and spare parts.

EnBW Hohe See and EnBW Albatros have a total capacity of 609 megawatts and will generate around 2.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year. This energy can supply around 710,000 households and save around 1.9 million tonnes of CO2. The electricity generated is thus equivalent to the consumption of all private households in Munich. The transformer station and 63 of the 87 foundations have already been installed and the array cabling is currently being laid. The wind turbines will be erected from 2019.

EnBW had its bid for the He Dreiht wind farm with a capacity of 900 MW accepted in the first offshore wind auction in Germany. He Dreiht is one of the world's first offshore wind farms that will not receive any funding. In addition, EnBW is planning to erect offshore wind farms in North America and Taiwan.