GERMAN WIND SETS TO SEA

Germany's first commercial offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 goes into operation; Siemens wind turbines supply clean electricity to over 50,000 households
2011 May 2 (Siemens)

"…Germany's first commercial offshore wind farm is now fully operational…EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG commissioned the project, which consists of 21 Siemens wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3 megawatts (MW) and a rotor diameter of 93 meters.

"The EnBW Baltic 1 wind farm will supply more than 50,000 German households with clean electricity. Siemens Energy constructed the facility in an area covering about seven square kilometers in the Baltic Sea…Commissioning of this wind farm is a major milestone on the way to creating sustainable power supply for Germany."

A view of the EnBW Baltic 1 wind farm (click to enlarge)

"Electricity from offshore wind power plants is soon expected to make a major contribution toward ecofriendly power supply in Germany, just as in other countries like the UK. Excellent wind conditions with high average wind speeds open up tremendous potential for the use of wind energy generated at sea…By 2030, wind farms with total capacity between 20,000 and 25,000 MW will be operating off Germany's coasts…"

Another view of the EnBW Baltic 1 wind farm (click to enlarge)

"Siemens will also build the EnBW Baltic 2 offshore wind farm (formerly known as Kriegers Flak)…It will have a total of 80 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 3.6 MW and a rotor diameter of 120 meters. Baltic 2 is slated for connection to the grid in 2013, and will supply about 340,000 households with clean electricity.

"To date, Siemens has already received orders for five offshore wind power plants in German waters. In addition to the contracts for EnBW Baltic 1 (48.3 MW), EnBW Baltic 2 (288 MW), Borkum Riffgat (108 MW), and DanTysk (288 MW), Siemens also received an order in February 2011 to build a German offshore farm Borkum Riffgrund 1 (320 MW). Over the last 20 years, Siemens has successfully installed more than 600 wind turbines with a combined capacity of more than 1800 MW in European waters…[T]hey have been reliably producing ecofriendly electricity. Siemens has additional offshore projects with a total capacity of about 3600 MW in its order books…"