First wind farm with REpower 6M turbines fully erected

Hamburg, 24 March 2009. REpower Systems AG (WKN: 617 703) has just completed erection of the first wind farm consisting exclusively of REpower 6M turbines. The three turbines, installed in the Westre civic wind farm close to the German-Danish border, each have six megawatt rated power and a rotor diameter of 126 metres, making them some of the biggest wind turbines in the world. The new turbine was developed by REpower engineers for offshore deployment at a later stage and assembled at the company’s manufacturing centre in Bremerhaven. In the Westre civic wind farm, the first three tur- bines of this type are to be tested extensively for offshore operation and will also be subjected to a type certification.

In January, the nacelles of the three 6Ms were shipped from the REpower plant in Bremerhaven to Dagebüll in Schleswig-Holstein and transported to the construction site from there. The rotor blades, each one 61.5 metres in length, were transported as a wide load directly from Denmark. The hub height of a 6M in the Westre civic wind farm comes to 100 metres: a crane with a boom height of 132 metres assisted in erecting the turbines.

Matthias Schubert, CTO of REpower, is delighted with the premiere. “By now, the REpower team has gained experience in the installation of 17 turbines of the type REpower 5M; the 6M technology is based on the successful 5M construction series. However, this was still our first time erecting a wind farm that consists fully of turbines each with a six megawatt output and for this I congratu- late the entire project team. This achievement means we have once again taken one huge step forward in the field of offshore wind energy,” he points out.

Also, the framework agreement between REpower Systems AG and the RWE subsidiary Innogy, signed in February, includes the delivery of up to 250 turbines of the type REpower 5M or 6M for the “Innogy Nordsee 1” offshore wind farm.

Over 200 limited partners from the districts of Westre, Ellhöft and the Danish Lydersholm are participating in the Vindtved GmbH & Co. KG civic wind farm.