269 MW Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm supplies first power to the German grid

Northland Deutsche Bucht GmbH has confirmed that the first turbine at its 269 MW Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm, has been successfully commissioned and is delivering power to the German grid.

Installation of the 33 turbines began earlier this year and all turbines are expected to be delivering energy to the grid by the end of 2019, as per schedule. Once operational, Deutsche Bucht will produce 1.1 billion kilowatt hours of eco-friendly energy each year, meeting the demand of approximately 328,000 households. The renewable energy produced by Deutsche Bucht will save 740,0001 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Installation of the turbines began in early June; as of today, 21 of the turbines have been installed by the turbine manufacturer, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind. The final fabrication on the two innovative Mono Bucket foundations is currently ongoing at Bladt Industries facilities at Lindoe, Denmark. Installation and cabling for the two Mono Bucket foundations and their turbines is planned for the fourth quarter. All 33 turbines are expected to be operational by the end of 2019.

Over the past few weeks, the installation and testing campaign for over 40 kilometres of internal cable was completed. The offshore substation of the wind farm was also successfully handed over to Northland by the Balance of Plant contractor Van Oord. The offshore substation had already been connected to the offshore converter station BorWin beta of grid operator TenneT, enabling the turbines to produce power. TenneT made a partial grid supply possible by connecting the first of the two 155-kilovolt export cables; a complete connection to the German high-voltage grid will occur later this year. Once all turbines are successfully installed, Deutsche Bucht will have an array of 33 turbines, each outputting 8.4 MW (megawatts) of power.