Offshore Test Uses REpower 5M Wind Turbines

Hamburg, Germany [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] REpower Systems AG is testing two recently erected REpower 5M offshore wind turbines on the DEWI-OCC test field in Cuxhaven, Germany.

The first completed turbine is for the utility EWE AG (Oldenburg/Niedersachsen), the second for the joint venture EWC Windpark Cuxhaven GmbH between E.ON Energy Projects GmbH (Munich) and Essent Wind Deutschland GmbH (Dusseldorf). Both companies want to test the use of the REpower 5M for offshore projects, after passage of the Infrastructure Act a few weeks ago eliminated key obstacles and removed a backlog of developing offshore wind energy in the German North Sea and Baltic Sea. One of the new regulations is that energy companies must assume connection costs to the electricity grid for offshore wind energy. In addition to the onshore prototype erected in Brunsbuettel (Schleswig-Holstein) in 2004, a 5M was installed for the first time in a demonstration project off the Scottish coast in water 44 meters deep in August 2006. In 2007, REpower plans to install another six 5M.