EnBW has announced that the first wind turbine at its 960MW He Dreiht wind farm is in place in Germany.
The developer said that this is the first time Vestas’ 15MW wind turbine has been used in a commercial project.
A single rotation of the rotor is enough to supply four households with electricity for a day.
Overall, the 64 wind turbines can produce enough electricity for 1.1 million households.
This mega wind farm will have a capacity comparable to today’s conventional power plants, EnBW said.
Michael Class, head of generation portfolio development at EnBW, said: “For more than 15 years, EnBW has been planning, building and operating offshore wind farms in Germany and Europe.
“EnBW He Dreiht is our largest offshore project to date and does not require government subsidies.
“It will make a significant contribution to achieving our goal of significantly increasing installed capacity from renewable energies from the current 6.6GW to over 10GW by 2030.”
Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe, said: “We are very pleased to be a partner of EnBW and to make our innovative offshore technology available to He Dreiht.
“With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone both for He Dreiht and for our offshore expansion.
“This will help Germany to build a secure, affordable and sustainable energy system.”
He Dreiht is being built about 85 kilometres northwest of Borkum and about 110 kilometres west of Heligoland.
More than 500 employees will work on this large construction site in the middle of the sea at peak times, with more than 60 ships involved in the construction.
EnBW’s offshore office in Hamburg is coordinating the major project and the 64 foundations were installed last year.
The installation vessel Wind Orca had taken the components on board in the port of Esbjerg in Denmark.
After a twelve-hour journey to the construction site at sea, the ship has placed the first turbine on the foundation already erected in the seabed.
Parallel to the installation of the wind turbines, the internal park cabling is running.
While the project is being developed by EnBW, 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht are owned by a partner consortium of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP and Norges Bank Investment Management.