DONG Energy is committing to building the 1.25billion euros offshore windfarm Borkum Riffgrund 1, in the German sector of the North Sea.
Borkum Riffgrund 1 will see up to 89 Siemens 3.5megawatt turbines with a total capacity of 320MW installed.
DONG says it will be able to supply CO-free power corresponding to the annual power consumption of almost 330,000 German households.
Announcing the decision to press ahead, Anders Eldrup, CEO at DONG Energy, said: “Borkum Riffgrund 1 will be DONG Energy’s first offshore windfarm in Germany.
“Borkum Riffgrund 1 enables DONG Energy to establish a strong foothold in the growing German offshore wind market.
“I am confident that DONG Energy, as a market leader within offshore wind, will be able to play a vital role in the interesting and fast-developing German market.”
He added that the project would help DONG Energy establish a more robust and balanced portfolio of offshore wind farm projects across geographies and regulatory regimes.
The development will attract a fixed price per kWh of electricity produced until about 13 years of operation. After that date it will receive the market price.
Construction work is expected to start in 2013, with first power production in 2014. The likelihood is that monopile substructures will be utilised, which means no large-scale work for any company in the UK.
It remains to be seen whether DONG chooses North Sea oil & gas experience for ploughing and cable-lay and connection operations.
The windfarm will be situated about 55km off the north-west coast of Germany, where DONG is also developing the neighbouring Borkum Riffgrund 2 project. No investment decision has been made with respect to this project.
DONG Energy says it has built more large scale offshore windfarms than any other developer in the world, making it the market leader in the field.
It currently has about 700MW of offshore wind power in production, and about 1,000MW (1GW) under construction in the UK and Denmark.
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