German offshore wind power plant Borkum Riffgrund 1 inaugurated

Borkum Riffgrund 1, a German offshore wind farm, which can provide clean power to 320,000 households, has been inaugurated.

The German offshore wind farm has been developed and constructed by DONG Energy. It is currently owned by DONG Energy, which holds 50% stake, while the rest are held by investors Kirkbi Invest A/S and William Demant Invest A/S.

The wind farm consists of 78 wind turbines from Siemens, and each of these turbines come with a capacity of 3.6 MWs and a rotor diameter of 120m.

Siemens will offer service and maintenance for the turbines for a period of 10 years.

Construction of the wind farm began in August 2013.

DONG Energy A/board of directors chairman S Thomas Thune Andersen said: "Borkum Riffgrund 1 is our first operational project in Germany and I’m very satisfied with the fact that we can now harvest the fruits of the investment we have put into this project. I’m also very pleased with the confidence that our joint venture partners have shown us by investing in this project.

"Our journey in Germany is far from over. We are currently building another two offshore wind projects and have a number of other projects in our pipeline that will allow us to demonstrate the skills and competences we have gained and will allow us to continue to show the trust we have in the German offshore wind market."

For Siemens, Borkum Riffgrund 1 is the sixth offshore wind power plant to be inaugurated in the summer.

In April, the German North Sea offshore wind power plant Dan Tysk (288 MW) was officially commissioned. In June, Gwynt y Môr (576 MW), the second largest offshore wind project worldwide and Westermost Rough (210 MW), the first large-scale commercial project in which Siemens’ six megawatt offshore wind turbines were used, were commissioned. The Butendiek (288 MW) wind farm in the German North Sea and EnBW Baltic 2 (288 MW) project in the German Baltic Sea were also inaugurated in September.

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Image: Siemens has installed 78 SWT-4.0-120 wind turbines at the wind power plant Borkum Riffgrund 1. Photo courtesy by Siemens AG