Airtricity orders 80 turbines for North Sea wind farm
Airtricity, the renewable energy division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), has signed an agreement with Siemens Energy for the delivery of 80 wind turbines for its Butendiek offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
The offshore project, with a capacity of 288 megawatts, is expected to be commissioned in 2012.
“This agreement shows that the German offshore market is moving from the demonstration phase to rolling out commercial projects,” said Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens Wind Power. “With more than 90 turbines already installed offshore, the Siemens 3.6-megawatt wind turbine has a proven track-record for the harsh environment in the North Sea.”
The Butendiek project is located 34 kilometres off the island of Sylt at a water depth of 20 metres.
“The Butendiek project enjoys one of the best conditions among the German offshore projects,” said Martin Huss, project director and general manager at Butendiek Offshore Windpark GmbH, the project company for the offshore wind farm.
Airtricity acquired the Butendiek project from the community-founded developer OSB Butendiek in 2007.
The German government has set a target of 25,000 megawatts of offshore wind power by the year 2030. The Butendiek wind farm will receive a feed-in-tariff of 15 Eurocents per kilowatt-hour, and the transmission system operator is obliged to connect the wind farm to the grid on time.
