First Offshore Wind Farm in Germany to be Launched

Alpha Ventus is a $332.5 (250 million euros) million, 60 megawatt pilot project wind power complex that is expected to feed the electricity demands of about 50,000 households, situated around 45 kilometers north of Borkum Island in Northeastern Germany.

Alpha Ventus is a joint venture project of several companies which include EWE A.G., E.ON Climate & Renewables and Vattenfall Europe Windkraft.

The German wind farm consists of 12 wind turbines, six of which come from French industrial conglomerate Areva while another six will come from Repower Systems A.G.

Alpha Ventus is known for using its high-yielding turbines that can produce 5 MW of electricity.  According to the New York Times, Alpha Ventus will benefit from adjustments in Germany’s offshore wind power subsidies that took effect last year.  It was said that offshore wind farms that will be operational before 2016 will get an additional 2 cents per kilowatt hour aside from the regular subsidy of 18 cents per kilowatt hour for 12 years.

As a country surrounded by neighbouring countries Denmark, home of wind giant Vestas, another principal offshore wind player, and Britain, the world’s leading producer of offshore wind electricity, Germany’s offshore wind project is seen to  come later than expected.

Britain has already obtained 1 gigawatt of installed offshore wind capacity.  According to Renewable U.K., Britain now has 336 turbines that are deployed in 11 wind farms in British bodies of water.

Germany is seen to be slowly catching up to this development.  Another company that has invested in offshore wind farms in Germany is RWE Innogy, a renewable subsidiary of German company and major European utility RWE.  The company has invested 1 billion euros for the construction of Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm. 

The Nordsee Ost project is expected to be operational by 2013.  It is a 295-MW project which will serve as the first principal wind farm in the region which will build 6.5 MW turbines that are provided by Repower.

German environment minister Dr. Norbert Rottgen said that using wind power will play an essential part in the energy mix of their future.  Germany aims to install an offshore capacity of 25,000 MW by 2030.

The European Wind Energy Association predicts that around 13 percent of Europe’s energy use by 2030 will be from offshore wind energy.  A total offshore capacity of 150,000 MW will have to be installed to attain this output.

Offshore winds have the advantage of being 70 percent to 100 percent stronger than on land as well as being more stable.

Among North Sea states, Netherlands provides the highest offshore wind subsidy at 24 cents per kilowatt-hour for a 12 year period.