Blackstone JV starts construction of 288MW offshore wind farm in Germany

WindMW, a joint venture (JV) of Blackstone and Windland Energieerzeugungs has started constructing a 288MW offshore wind farm, Meerwind Sud a"eOst, that will be located approximately 23km northwest of the island Helgoland in the German North Sea.

The 288MW Meerwind Sud a"eOst wind farm will use 80 Siemens turbines of SWT-3.6-120 type each with a generating capacity of 3.6MW to produce enough electricity to power around 360,000 households.

The company secured financing for the wind farm through the KfW offshore wind programme.

WindMW CEO Jens Assheuer said, "There is much work still to be done during the offshore installation but we are on track to begin delivering clean power to the public grid next year," Assheuer added.

The first stage of construction involved preparing seabed which was executed by Boskalis on behalf of Seajacks, owner and operator of purpose-built self-propelled jack-up vessels.

AMBAU, as contractor for the foundation, is manufacturing monopiles at Cuxhaven and Bremen facilities in Germany.

Seajacks will install the 80 monopile foundations in September 2012 after which scour protection will be placed around the foundations. Seajacks will use its newly built jackup vessel Zaratan to install the monopole foundations.

Siemens and Seajacks will finally install and commission the wind turbines in early 2013.

The construction of the vessels and materials is expected to employ about 2,500 people in Germany and the offshore construction phase is estimated to employ over 600 people through all the companies involved.

Image: WindMW will build the proposed offshore wind farm in the German North Sea. Photo: Ashley Dace