Germany - RWE Innogy erects wind measurement station in the North Sea

RWE Innogy successfully completed the installation of a measuring tower in the German North Sea. The measuring system has been installed in the construction area of the Nordsee Ost offshore windfarm 30 km north of Heligoland. RWE Innogy will start the construction of the windfarm at the beginning of next year. The measuring tower with a total height of about 97 metres above sea level will from now on supply meteorological data on wind velocities, wind direction, turbulence as well as temperatures, air pressure and air humidity. Moreover, wave height, water level and visibility will be measured permanently.

Prof. Martin Skiba, head of offshore windpower at RWE Innogy: “The new measuring tower will now be used in our project area on a permanent basis. The collected data will help us to control our Nordsee Ost windfarm efficiently in the future. The measuring station will also supply important information for the optimum planning of maintenance work.

To this end, the measuring tower is also equipped with a laser-assisted measuring system which enables wind velocity and wind direction to be measured both horizontally and vertically up to a height of 200 metres. During the operation of the windfarm, these data are sent to the onshore control centre for an optimum setting of the wind turbines.

A 62 metre long tubular steel foundation for the measuring tower was already installed at a water depth of 25 metres at the end of September. A large air bubble curtain was also successfully tested during this work to attenuate the noise propagation when ramming the foundation into the seabed. Such a large air bubble curtain will also be used for the installation of the altogether 49 foundations of the Nordsee Ost windfarm. The pile foundation also served to carry out more application research. In fact, dynamic load tests were conducted to investigate the behaviour of the foundation in the seabed.

RWE Innogy installed a second measuring tower of identical design off the Dutch coast at the beginning of October. This measuring station will provide additional findings on wind and meteorological conditions on the open sea, too. The erection of this measuring tower is part of the offshore research and development project “Flow” sponsored by the Dutch government.

“A lot of research still remains to be done for the use of windpower at sea. The erection of measuring stations is an important step to understand and analyse the local wind regime. These data are of fundamental importance for the development, construction and operation of offshore windfarms,” explains Skiba.

The Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm is set to commence operating in 2013 and will, upon completion, have a total output of around 295 megawatts. This allows the generation of 1,000,000,000 kWh every year - enough power to supply some 310,000 households every year.

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