Hohe See owner EnBW has now made a final investment decision for its 497 MW offshore wind power plant. Construction of the offshore wind farm will begin in early 2018 at a site 90 kilometres north of the German island of Borkum in the North Sea, at water depths of up to 40 metres. It will consist of 71 wind turbines of the SWT-7.0-154 type, rated at 7 MW each. These turbines will be manufactured at the new Siemens nacelle plant in Cuxhaven, beginning in mid-2018 and will be shipped to the project harbour in early 2019. The wind farm will supply enough clean renewable power for 560,000 households. The turbine blades will be shipped from factories in Hull, UK, and Aalborg, Denmark. Commissioning of the wind farm is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019.
Siemens began the project with the development of project-specific solutions for the foundations of the wind farm, resulting in a large monopile design with a length of up to 80 metres and a weight of up to 1,500 tons in order to anchor the wind turbines solidly into the sea bed. Siemens has more than 25 years of experience with offshore projects, beginning with the Vindeby offshore wind farm in Denmark, commissioned in 1991. The company is partnering with logistics specialist GeoSea for EnBW Hohe See while Deme Group will also deliver the foundations including monopiles and transition pieces.
Siemens embarked on its extended scope plan to significantly mitigate risk-exposure to investors. The integrated design and installation approach together with the complete solution including turbines, towers, TPs and foundations is aimed at providing investors with maximum security and confidence regarding the financing and completion of the project.
“We are happy to apply our full scope of engineering services at EnBW Hohe See offshore wind project” said Michael Hannibal, Offshore CEO at Siemens Wind Power. “The extended scope makes this 497 MW wind power plant one of the largest projects that we have ever executed. Our customer thereby benefits from the proven experience of a multinational company along the entire value chain of large offshore wind projects.”
After commissioning, Siemens will perform service and maintenance for a period of at least five years. Grid connection will be established via the BorWin 3 high-voltage DC link and BorWin Gamma converter platform to be installed by Siemens for grid operator Tennet.
Image: Siemens SWT-7.0-154 turbine
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