Siemens Gamesa recently installed its thousandth direct drive offshore wind turbine at the 714MW East Anglia 1 offshore wind farm off the east coast of England.
The milestone was reached when the 51st out of 102 Siemens Gamesa 7MW turbines was erected at the project site.
Since being launched in 2011, the thousand turbines have avoided approximately 29 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to the manufacturer.
Siemens Gamesa offshore business unit chief executive Andreas Nauen said: “Installing the Siemens Gamesa offshore direct drive wind turbine number 1000 is a remarkable achievement in many ways.
“Our contribution to combatting the effects of climate change becomes more tangible with the physical installation of this turbine along with its 999 predecessors.”
According to performance data collected by Siemens Gamesa, its direct drive offshore wind turbine fleet has produced approximately 34.6 terawatt hours of electricity since the first unit was installed in 2011, equivalent to the electricity consumption of Spain’s capital, Madrid, for an entire year.
Nauen added: “The levelised cost of energy from offshore wind has decreased rapidly over the last few years, fully establishing the technology as on-par with traditional industrial power generation methods.
“Our order backlog with an additional 1000 plus direct drive offshore turbines is a testament to this achievement, and to the trust placed in us by our customers.”