Germany: Far offshore wind farm Global Tech I in stable operation

By early April this year the Global Tech I offshore wind farm had already delivered one terawatt-hours of generated energy. Since last summer’s commissioning and the subsequent testing of its 80 turbines (each 5 megawatt of type AD 5-116) and systems, the wind farm has been producing electricity reliably. In January alone, the month of strongest winds, Global Tech I fed over 150 gigawatt-hours of environmentally friendly power into the German grid. Hendrik Steindam, Commercial Managing Director of Global Tech I Offshore Wind GmbH: “The Global Tech I wind farm is situated 140 kilometres from Emden in the middle of the German North Sea. The strong and constant winds out there are paying off in terms of continuously high energy output. We now estimate that on average over the year our turbines will easily exceed 4,000 hours of maximum load in operation and so give a big boost to the energy policy transformation”. In total the company calculates that the fully operational 400 megawatt wind farm, after deducting energy losses such as due to transmission, should produce at least 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of power each year. This is a sufficient to supply 445,000 households with average electricity demand of 3,130 kilowatt-hours.

Offshore wind farm with a special operations concept

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXk2EkLevL6iABDGSHijQpQGlobal Tech I belongs to what are called “far offshore wind farms”. With a distance of 140 kilometres from its logistics support hub in Emden, it means it is one of the most distant from the coastline of offshore wind farms in the whole of Europe. The operations concept is by necessity markedly different from wind farms closer to the coast, which are known as near-shore wind farms and whose service technicians can travel by crew transfer vessel on a daily basis to and from the wind farm. In the case of a far offshore wind farm like Global Tech I the journey by sea to the wind farm can take five hours, and this rules out such a solution. Detlef Schmeer, Technical Managing Director of Global Tech I Offshore Wind GmbH: “As a far offshore wind farm, Global Tech I demanded a completely new operations concept. Due to its distance from the coastline our offshore substation platform is permanently manned by nearly 40 persons. This way we can guarantee smooth operations of the substation and rapid service response of Adwen technicians on the wind turbines.” Annual maintenance of the 80 turbines takes place in the summer. The smaller waves in summer make it possible for the wind towers to be reached by small crew transfer vessels and access to the turbines by climbing the fixed ladders. A special service vessel will accommodate the extra technicians required.

A good impression of the pioneering performance of construction and operation of the Global tech I offshore wind farm can be gained from three videos (in German language) available in the online press mediathek: “Construction of the wind farm”, “Operation of the wind farm” and “Wind power from the North Sea” or on the Global Tech I Youtube channel.

• Global Tech I mediathek
• Global Tech I Youtube channel