The last turbine has been successfully installed at the “Borkum Riffgrund 3” wind farm. With 913 MW, it is the largest wind farm in Germany to date.
Ørsted, together with the companies Cadeler and Seaway7, spent around six months installing a total of 83 turbines around 72 km off the coast of Lower Saxony. Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure are equal owners.
“The installation of the last turbine in what is by far our largest offshore wind farm in Germany is a great success – thanks in particular to our colleagues for their commitment in the North Sea,” says Jörg Kubitza, Managing Director of Ørsted in Germany. “With the installed capacity of ‘Borkum Riffgrund 3’, we have now reached a total of almost 2.5 GW and underline our role as the largest operator of offshore wind energy.”
Once commissioned, the project will make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of industrial customers – on a scale that only offshore wind energy can achieve. The business model required for this, based on long-term power purchase agreements, is being used in this form for offshore wind for the first time in Germany.
“This pioneering project demonstrates Nuveen Infrastructure’s ongoing commitment to the decarbonisation of the energy sector,” says EJordi Francesch, Managing Director Renewable Energy Investments at Nuveen Infrastructure. “It also underlines our ability to realise complex renewable energy projects that drive the global energy transition.” In collaboration with Ørsted, the company aims to promote long-term, sustainable growth and make an important contribution to the green transformation in Germany.
“A big thank you goes to our project team, which has done a great job over the past few years in preparing and implementing the installation of the wind turbines,” emphasises Felix Gschnell, Project Director of “Borkum Riffgrund 3”. Especially in this complex and challenging market situation, successfully implementing such a large project is an outstanding achievement. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, Siemens Gamesa, Cadeler and Seaway7, for the excellent cooperation that made this milestone possible.”
Green electricity for industry
“Borkum Riffgrund 3″ is the first offshore wind farm in the world to be awarded without subsidies. Ørsted was awarded the contracts in the 2017 and 2018 offshore wind tenders at a price of zero euros feed-in tariff per MWh – a first for offshore wind. The realisation of the project is mainly made possible by long-term Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPA) that Ørsted has concluded with industrial and technology customers.
786 megawatts of the total capacity will be purchased by the companies Amazon (350 MW), BASF (186 MW), Covestro (100 MW), Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft/REWE Group (100 MW) and Google (50 MW) once the wind farm is commercially operational. The terms of the respective contracts range from 10 to 25 years. The agreements create long-term price security for both the project developer, Ørsted, and the customers.
Ørsted doubles German offshore wind capacity
The last turbine in Borkum Riffgrund 3 was installed by the installation vessel “Wind Osprey” from Cadeler. In addition, the installation of the turbines was also carried out in equal parts by the “Seaway Ventus” from Seaway7. The turbines are from manufacturer Siemens Gamesa, each with a rated output of eleven megawatts – currently the largest model in German waters. “Borkum Riffgrund 3” covers an area of around 75 km². At the same time, the Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm was installed and is due to be fully commercially commissioned in the near future.
Both project locations are close to the company’s existing wind farms, “Borkum Riffgrund 1” and “Borkum Riffgrund 2” as well as “Gode Wind 1” and “Gode Wind 2”. With the two additional wind farms, Ørsted’s installed offshore wind power capacity in Germany almost doubles to around 2.5 gigawatts, which corresponds to the supply capacity for around 2.5 million German households. As with Ørsted’s previous offshore wind farms, operation and maintenance will be carried out from Norden-Norddeich in East Frisia and Emden.
“Borkum Riffgrund 3″ was the first Ørsted offshore wind farm in Germany to be built without an offshore substation (OSS). The new connection concept provides for a direct connection of the wind turbines via 66 kV connection cables to the offshore converter platform “DolWin Epsilon” from transmission system operator Tennet. This is to be installed in 2025. The wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in the first quarter of 2026.
