EnBW inks order for Germany's first offshore wind farm

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG today signed a contract in which Siemens Energy will supply the firm with 21 wind turbines for its Baltic 1 offshore wind farm — set to become Germany’s first commercial offshore installation in the Baltic Sea.

The seven-square-kilometre Baltic 1 facility will be built about 16 kilometres north of the Darss/Zingst peninsula. With the maritime civil engineering portion of the work set to begin early next year, the 48.3-megawatt wind farm is scheduled to come online in late 2010.

“With the signing of the contract today we have taken a major step toward the realization of Baltic 1 as a central aspect of our commitment in the field of offshore wind farms,” said Hans-Josef Zimmer, a board member and CTO of EnBW. “As one of the very first commercial projects in German waters, the project is of special significance for the offshore sector in Germany in general and for EnBW in particular.”

Siemens has provided wind turbines for more than 600 megawatts of installed offshore capacity, and has an order backlog for more than 3,330 megawatts more.

“2009 promises to be a record year for offshore wind power,” said René Umlauft, CEO of the Siemens Renewable Energy Division. “The order for Baltic 1 shows that the German market is now also slowly picking up speed.”

Baltic 1 is one of four offshore wind power projects — with a combined capacity of about 1,200 megawatts and a total investment of about €3 billion — that EnBW secured in early 2008. Two projects are located in the Baltic Sea, with the other two in the North Sea. EnBW aims to nearly double the share of renewables in its energy mix from 11 per cent today to 20 per cent by the year 2020.