Vattenfall is to start construction of a warehouse in Denmark’s Port of Esbjerg to support the servicing of wind farms in the UK, Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
Vattenfall is building a 2100 sq metre indoor warehouse and an 8200 sq metre outdoor storage facility, which will be ready in 2022.
The warehouse will stock critical main components such as gearboxes, generators, transformers, shafts and blades as well as the main components necessary for bringing the electricity on shore such as array cables and switchgear.
The warehouse will be a supplement to the dedicated warehouses that will still serve individual wind farms in Vattenfall’s wind portfolio.
“The Port of Esbjerg is the ideal place for us to build such a warehouse due to its central location in Northern Europe and the professional way the port is operated.
“It will provide economies of scale compared to having vital main components stored at several smaller locations, and it is a central part of our ambition to see growth in wind farms across Northern Europe,” says Pia Bonding, head of integrated operations at Vattenfall.
Vattenfall operates more than 1300 onshore and offshore wind turbines in Northern Europe dispersed across farms from Northern Sweden over Denmark to Germany and the Netherlands.
The wind farms are already monitored from Vattenfall’s local control room in Esbjerg.
Port of Esbjerg CEO Dennis Jul Pedersen said: “It was a condition for Vattenfall that the building was close to the quay.
“It is part of the port’s strategy to be able to deliver this type of solutions, and the former ferry terminal has been laid out for this type of activity.”
Construction work will begin at the end of June this year and is expected to be completed over a 10-month period.
After that, the warehouse has to be stocked and made ready for operation in June 2022.