Work on the site of the Nordergründe 111 MW offshore wind farm is progressing well. After the successful assembly of all 18 foundation structures, conversion of the installation ship, the MPI Enterprise, for erecting the wind turbines in the Weser estuary began at the beginning of August. The first Senvion turbine of type 6.2M126 was successfully installed on Tuesday of this week.
"We have arrived at an important stage in the nearshore wind energy project. The whole wpd team is delighted at reaching this milestone", says Project Manager, Hans-Christoph Brumberg, summing up the mood.
wpd is also announcing that it has sold a 30 percent stake in the wind farm to the John Laing Group plc. The listed company with operations around the world and its head office in London specialises in infrastructure projects. "Wind energy is and remains an attractive market for investors. In John Laing we have won a highly professional and experienced partner for Nordergründe", states Helge Rau, Head of M&A at wpd.
Funding for the project was concluded in June 2015 with the participation of the European Investment Bank and KfW IPEX. Besides wpd and John Laing, the Gothaer insurance group has also been acting as an equity provider since the end of last year.
Nordergründe is a unique project. It is the very first German offshore project for which all the major work is being supplied and installed exclusively by manufacturers based in Germany and producing in the north-west region of the country. As well as Senvion (turbines), the companies involved are Ambau (foundations), BVT (transformer substation), NSW (internal cabling) and Bilfinger (installation).
The Nordergründe wind farm is being built in water up to ten metres in depth within the 12 sea mile zone of the German North Sea. It is located 15 kilometres north-east of the island of Wangerooge.