DOTI — a joint venture owned in equal shares by utilities E.ON, Vattenfall Europe and EWE — said the 180 million euro ($282.6 million) project got official permission. The wind park is also known as Borkum West and will be built some 45 km north of the island of Borkum near the Dutch border. The wind park is partly sponsored by the government and is the first of some 30 projects planned for the seas around northern Germany.
Countries like Denmark and Britain have more advanced offshore wind industries but their turbines are not situated as far out at sea as Germany’s planned projects which hope to benefit from stronger winds further out. Once built, Alpha Ventus will be connected to the German power grid at Hagermarsch by a 70 km-long cable operated by E.ON. Alpha Ventus will eventually comprise of 12 turbines of 5 megawatts each, enabling DOTI to supply the equivalent of 50,000 households with power.
Shipping company Norden Frisia AG has been contracted to supply the vessels and shuttle services needed to build it. Offshore wind power is one of the core elements of the German government’s push to double the level of renewable energies by 2020.
– from www.reuters.com