Germany’s largest offshore wind farm EnBW He Dreiht: All 64 foundations installed

Karlsruhe/Hamburg/Emden. A significant milestone has been reached in the construction of He Dreiht, currently Germany’s largest offshore wind farm: EnBW has installed all 64 foundations in the North Sea as scheduled. Heerema’s “Thialf”, one of the world’s largest floating cranes, drove the monopile foundations into the sea bed within approx. three months. The 70-meter-long steel foundations are 9.2 meters in diameter and weigh around 1,350 metric tons each. Transition pieces, which serve as a connecting element between the wind turbine tower and the monopile, were placed on top of the monopiles.

He Dreiht is being built roughly 85 kilometers northwest of Borkum and about 110 kilometers west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 people work on this large construction site in the middle of the sea. Over 60 vessels are involved. The latest generation of Vestas wind turbines will be installed starting in spring 2025 with a capacity of 15 megawatts (MW) each. The wind farm is scheduled to start operation in late 2025 with a total capacity of 960 MW, which is sufficient to supply roughly 1.1 million households with electricity.

In the first offshore auction held in Germany, EnBW secured the contract for the project back in 2017. He Dreiht will not require any state subsidies.

About EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
With a workforce of over 28,000 employees, EnBW is one of the largest energy supply companies in Germany and Europe. It supplies electricity, gas and water together with infrastructure and energy-related products and services to around 5.5 million customers. In the company’s transformation from a traditional energy provider to a sustainable infrastructure group, the expansion of renewable energy sources and of the distribution and transportation grids for electricity and gas are cornerstones of EnBW’s growth strategy and the focus of its investment spending. By 2030, EnBW plans gross investment of 40 billion euros, around 90 percent of which is earmarked for Germany. By the end of 2025, renewables are set to account for more than half of EnBW’s generation portfolio. The aim is to phase out coal by the end of 2028. These are key milestones on the company’s way to achieving climate neutrality by 2035. www.enbw.com