EnBW heads for gigascale as foundations installed at Germany's largest wind farm

German utility expects to commission He Dreiht wind farm north of Borkum Island late next year

Foundation at He Dreiht installed.Photo: EnBW, Magnus Reinke

Bernd Radowitz

European Editor, Recharge

EnBW has installed all 64 foundations at its He Dreiht offshore wind project in the North Sea and is on schedule to start operations at the near-gigawatt-scale array later next year.

Dutch contractor Heerema’s Thialf, one of the world’s largest floating cranes, within about three months had driven the 70-metre-long steel monopiles into the sea bed at the location about 85 kilometres north of the German island of Borkum.

The foundations are 9.2 metres in diameter and weigh around 1,350 metric tons each. Transition pieces have already been placed on top of the monopiles.

The German utility is slated to install 64 Vestas 15MW turbines at the project in the spring of next year. At peak times, more than 500 people work on this large construction site in the middle of the sea, EnBW said, with over 60 vessels involved.

The 960MW wind farm is slated to supply some 1.1 million households with green power.

EnBW at Germany’s first offshore wind auction in 2017 had secured the contract for the project with a zero-subsidy bid.

EnBW heads for gigascale as foundations installed at Germany's largest wind farm

Giant floating crane works round-the-clock to install Germany's largest offshore wind farm

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