“He Dreiht” in front of Borkum
EnBW is building an XXL wind farm in the North Sea
May 16, 2024, 5:24 p.m
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The largest wind farm to date on the high seas is being built in the North Sea. The Karlsruhe energy company EnBW is building 64 wind turbines there. The first foundations will be laid on Saturday.
The Karlsruhe-based energy group EnBW is building the largest wind farm to date on the high seas in the North Sea, which will at least theoretically supply electricity for 1.1 million households from the end of 2025. The first foundations would be laid on Saturday, announced the board member for sustainable generation infrastructure, Peter Heydecker.
A total of 64 wind turbines are to be connected to the grid around 85 kilometers northwest of the island of Borkum and around 110 kilometers west of Heligoland. The installed capacity is given as 960 megawatts. EnBW is thus almost doubling its offshore portfolio.
CEO Georg Stamatelopoulos made it clear with a view to the federal government’s expansion goal of generating at least 30 gigawatts of electricity with wind turbines at sea (offshore) by 2030: To achieve this, a wind farm of this size would have to be built every three months. The goal is not out of the question, said Stamatelopoulos. But to achieve it, you still need a lot of acceleration and support.
With a utilization of around 4,000 hours per year, offshore wind farms could become the pillars of the energy transition. The planned wind farm “He Dreiht” (Low German for “He turns”) with an investment sum of around 2.4 billion euros is currently one of the largest energy transition projects in Europe and is one of the first offshore wind farms without state funding.
Even before construction began, EnBW concluded long-term purchase agreements with companies such as Bosch, Deutsche Bahn, Fraport and Evonik, which cover a large portion of the electricity volume. A consortium of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9 percent of the shares in “He Dreiht”.
120 kilometers of cable under water
EnBW does not expect delivery bottlenecks in construction, although Stamatelopoulos said generally in relation to energy transition projects: “We are thinly staffed in Europe.” Capital and personnel are also hurdles that have to be overcome in such projects. “He Dreiht” uses the latest generation of wind turbines from the manufacturer Vestas. “At a hub height of 142 meters, the rotor with a diameter of 236 meters covers an area of 43,742 square meters in one revolution – this corresponds to the area of six football fields,” EnBW explains the dimensions.
According to the information, one rotor revolution of a 15 megawatt turbine is enough to supply four households with electricity for one day. 120 kilometers of cable under water and 110 kilometers on land ensure a connection to the power grid. More than 500 employees are expected to work on the large construction site at peak times. Over 60 ships are involved in the construction.