Borkum Riffgrund 3: Ørsted Installs First 11 MW Siemens Gamesa Turbine in Germany's Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Hamburg, Germany - The expansion of offshore wind energy in Germany is currently developing dynamically again, also thanks to increasingly powerful wind turbines. The Danish energy group Ørsted has now reached the next milestone with the installation of the first wind turbine in the construction of Borkum Riffgrund 3, currently Germany's largest wind farm.

Ørsted has installed the first wind turbine at the Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Once commissioned, the record-breaking project will be the largest wind farm in Germany to date. According to Ørsted, it is also the first offshore wind project in the world to be awarded a subsidy without state support. The realization is primarily made possible by long-term power purchase agreements that Ørsted has concluded with industrial and technology customers.

Borkum Riffgrund 3: Most powerful turbine from Siemens Gamesa in operation

Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure are equal owners of Borkum Riffgrund 3, Germany's largest wind farm to date with an installed capacity of 913 MW. The first turbine has now been installed by the installation vessel Seaway Ventus from Seaway7. In addition, the installation of the total of 83 Siemens-Gamesa turbines with an output of 11 MW will also be carried out in equal parts by the installation vessel Wind Osprey from Cadeler. The site of Borkum Riffgrund 3 is located around 72 km off the coast of Lower Saxony and covers an area of around 75 km². Borkum Riffgrund 3 is scheduled to go into operation in 2025.

The important milestone in the Borkum Riffgrund 3 project was reached shortly after the successful feed-in of the first electricity from the Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm (253 MW), which is being built at the same time as Borkum Riffgrund 3. Both project sites are close to the company's existing wind farms, Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2 and Gode Wind 1 and 2. With the two additional wind farms, Ørsted's installed offshore wind power capacity in Germany almost doubles to around 2,500 MW (2.5 GW).

Borkum Riffgrund 3 is the first Ørsted offshore wind farm to be built with a new connection concept without an offshore substation (OSS). This provides for a direct connection of the wind turbines via 66 kV connection cables to the DolWin Epsilon offshore converter platform of transmission system operator Tennet.

"Borkum Riffgrund 3 is an icebreaker in offshore wind. It was the first offshore wind project in the world to be awarded on a merchant basis, and it’s the first offshore wind farm in Germany to break the 900 MW-mark. I’m proud to see that the first turbine is now installed, and we look forward to completing this milestone project," said Peter Obling, Ørsted's Continental Europe Region Manager, welcoming the turbine installation.

"We are delighted that Nuveen Infrastructure is, alongside Ørsted, at the forefront of the decarbonisation of the German Electricity market with the exciting milestone of first turbine being installed in Borkum Riffgrund 3, the largest offshore wind farm once in operation in Germany, which is true testament of our ability to successfully manage large and complex projects that will drive acceleration of energy transition," adds Jordi Francesch, Managing Director Renewable Energy Investments at Nuveen Infrastructure.

Riffgrund 3 contributes to the decarbonization of the German industry via PPA

Ørsted was awarded the contracts for Borkum Riffgrund 3 in the 2017 and 2018 offshore wind tenders at a price of zero euros feed-in tariff per MWh - a first for offshore wind. The long-term Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPA) that Ørsted has concluded with industrial and technology customers are essential for the income from the wind farm. 786 MW of the total capacity will be purchased by the companies Amazon (350 MW), BASF (186 MW), Covestro (100 MW), Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft/REWE Group (100 MW) and Google (50 MW) after commercial commissioning of the wind farm in 2025. The terms of the contracts range from 10 to 25 years.

2024: Realization of 7,600 MW offshore wind capacity on the agenda

In 2024, Ørsted will realize the largest construction pipeline in the company's history with a total of approx. 7,600 MW (7.6 GW) of offshore wind capacity on three continents, including Hornsea 3 with 2,800 MW (2.8 GW) in the UK, the largest offshore wind farm in the world. At the beginning of May, Ørsted celebrated the successful installation of the first foundation for its Revolution Wind offshore wind farm (704 MW) off the US East Coast.

Source: IWR Online, Jun 06 2024