Map of the offshore wind power farms in the German Bight

Amrumbank West in a German

offshore wind farm Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of c ...

in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

owned by

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

. It is located about 35 km northwest of the island of

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

and around 18 km south-west of the

Amrum Bank Amrum Bank (german: Amrumbank, da, Amrum Banke, North Frisian: ''Oomrambeenk'') is an undersea bank in the North Sea approximately 54 km from Amrum island and 60 km from Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandi ...

sandbank. It consists of 80 turbines in waters 19–24 m deep.

Construction

Construction cost was around . The project was delayed 15 months by the lack of power lines. The 80 wind turbines are Siemens SWT-3.6–120 with a rated power of 3.6 MW and a rotor diameter of 120 meters.''Siemens sichert sich Auftrag für Offshore-Windkraftwerk in Deutschland.''
Siemens, 15 December 2011, retrieved 23 December 2011. Offshore construction began in 2013, and the first turbine was installed in February 2015. The wind farm was commissioned at the end of 2015.

Seabed protection

Geoprotection of off-shore wind energy turbines

The seabed surface at the construction site mainly consists of sand. It was initially reinforced by a 2.4-m-thick layer of large stones. However, this hindered installation of the turbine piles, which should be driven through the protection layer deep into the seabed. Therefore, stones were replaced by two layers of

geotextile Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in two basic forms: woven (re ...

containers, i.e., sandbags made of a special damage-resistant nonwoven geotextile. Empty bags had a size of 1.45 × 2.38 m and could accommodate 1 m³ of sand; they were filled on the

Rømø Rømø (german: Röm, frr, Rem) is a Danish island in the Wadden Sea. Rømø is part of Tønder Municipality. The island had 650 inhabitants as of 1 January 2011,

island up to 80 vol% and weighed 1400 kg each. The seabed protection withstood the

St. Jude storm The St. Jude storm, also known as Cyclone Christian, and other names, was a severe hurricane-force European windstorm that hit Northwestern Europe on 27 and 28 October 2013 causing at least 17 deaths. The highest windspeed was in Denmark, where a ...

in October 2013 and

Cyclone Xaver Cyclone Xaver (or Storm Xaver), also known as the North Sea flood or tidal surge of 2013, was a winter storm that affected northern Europe. Force 12 winds and heavy snowfall were predicted along the storm's path, and there were warnings of a s ...

in December 2013. Starting from December 2013, turbine piles 6 m in diameter were driven through the erosion protection layers.

References

Offshore wind farms in the North Sea Wind farms in Germany 2015 establishments in Germany Energy infrastructure completed in 2015 {{Germany-powerstation-stub

Construction

Seabed protection

See also

References