"We are honoured to partner with EnBW in this conditional agreement for the He Dreiht wind project and provide our V236-15.0 MW turbine to help Germany achieve its ambitious offshore wind energy goals. This project highlights how Vestas plays a leading role in the rapid expansion of offshore wind by continuously striving to build stronger partnerships with our customers such as EnBW and providing the right solutions that enable them to deliver the ambitious projects needed to reach European offshore wind targets.” says Nils de Baar, President of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
With a swept area of 43,742 m2 and a capacity factor of over 60 percent from the 115.5m blades, the V236-15.0 MW turbine will deliver industry-leading park performance for EnBW at He Dreiht. Depending on site-specific conditions a single V236-15.0 MW turbine can produce 80 GWh per year, enough to power around 20,000 European households.
"Only with state-of-the-art and cost-efficient technology we can realise offshore projects like He Dreiht without subsidies. The turbines from Vestas make a significant contribution to this. Offshore is not only technically demanding, but also requires solid forward-looking forecasts, knowledge of the market and the willingness take entrepreneurial risks before a final investment decision has been made. As one of the pioneers in German offshore history, we would like to use He Dreiht to further contribute to making offshore wind energy available for the German market", says Michael Class, Head of Generation Portfolio Development at EnBW.
Vestas has also entered a conditional agreement with Cadeler, a leading supplier within offshore wind installation services, for the transportation and installation of the turbines for the He Dreiht project. Installation is planned to begin in the second quarter of 2025, with full park commissioning anticipated for the fourth quarter of the same year. The project has a grid connection capacity of 900 MW and an excess capacity of 60 MW in order to use the connection capacity as efficiently as possible even when production is lower.
The V236-15.0 MW prototype development work is progressing across Vestas’ R&D and production sites, and the prototype wind turbine is planned for installation later this year, with serial production to begin from 2024. If and when the agreement with EnBW materialises in a firm and unconditional order for Vestas, the company will send out a new press release to this effect.