wpd puts nearshore project Nordergründe into operation

This wind farm will in future provide 100,000 households with green power. In addition to wpd, the co-shareholders of the park John Laing Group plc and the Gothaer Insurance Group are also delighted that installation work has now been successfully completed.

Building work on the nearshore wind farm kicked off in May 2016: The first monopile for the Senvion turbines of the type 6.2M126 was set up 15 kilometres north-east of Wangerooge in the Weser estuary. All foundation structures had been completely installed in the mid of 2016. This was directly followed by installation of the wind turbines, which was completed at the beginning of December 2016.

The project faced with a serious challenge in September 2016 when the manufacturer of the offshore substation surprisingly filed for insolvency. A quick solution had to be found as to how further construction was to continue on the structure, which at that time consisted merely of a rough steel structure. “After analysing various possibilities, we decided together with banks and equity investors that completion of the construction should be managed by wpd alone“, explains Achim Berge Olsen, Managing Director of OWP Nordergründe GmbH & Co. KG and wpd offshore GmbH. “This initially looked like an enormous feat and was unique in this sector up to that time, but we were able to complete on time thanks to the skills and competence of our highly motivated team. We proved that you can rely on wpd, even in the most difficult situations.“

In accordance with the revised programme, wpd completed installation of the substation at the end of September 2017. Since then work has involved successive commissioning of each individual turbine. “Yesterday was a special day for all of us. We are very happy to have successfully completed the project,” says Berge Olsen.

Nordergründe wind farm is located in water depths of up to ten metres within the 12-nautical mile zone of the German North Sea. Grid connection is facilitated by a single connection via the grid operator, Tennet. Manufacturers of the components for the wind farm originate from the German north-west region. In addition to Senvion (wind turbines) these include Ambau (foundations), NSW (internal wind farm cabling) and Bilfinger Marine & Offshore Systems, now Van Oord (installation). In future, Deutsche Windtechnik will assume operational management of the wind farm.