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The first wind turbine for Germany's alpha ventus project, the first offshore wind development for the country, has been installed by the Deutsche Offshore- Testfeld und Infrastruktur GmbH (DOTI) consortium.
"For the first time, wind turbines of this size are being constructed this far offshore in waters up to 30 meters deep. EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall are accomplishing a truly pioneering feat in the offshore wind industry," Wilfried Hube, overall project leader of alpha ventus
The DOTI consortium, comprising EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall, have completed construction of the first of 12 wind turbines for the €250 million development in the North Sea.
The 5 MW Areva Multibrid turbine is situated 45 km north of the island of Borkum. All 12 machines are scheduled to be in operation by the end of this year.
Construction work for the building and installation of the wind turbines has been underway since mid-2007 and construction of the wind turbines began in mid-April of this year after a first attempt had to be aborted in August 2008 due to bad weather. In September 2008, DOTI completed the offshore transformer station and an underwater cable was installed last year by Transpower GmbH to connect the transformer station with the German power grid.
The next step in the development is the phased launching of the first wind turbine. Also involved is connecting the turbine to the offshore transformer station, which will follow in the coming weeks. EWE will later be responsible for supervision and overall operational management of the newly constructed wind farm.
A webcam positioned on the research platform FINO1 is focused directly on the construction site and can be found here.
"This is a first for offshore wind energy utilisation in Germany," says Wilfried Hube (EWE), overall project leader of alpha ventus, adding: "For the first time, wind turbines of this size are being constructed this far offshore in waters up to 30 meters deep. EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall are accomplishing a truly pioneering feat in the offshore wind industry and I am certain that alpha ventus will be a success story."
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