Themepark Offshore@WindEnergy

WindEnergy - International Trade Fair
at the Hamburg Fair Site from 11 to 14 May 2004

Hamburg, 20 April 2004
At the present time the dozen or so wind farms planned worldwide for offshore construction have a total output of “only” 280 megawatts (MW). But in just a few years, offshore will be a major pillar of the international wind energy industry. That is confirmed by the WindEnergy Study 2004: the manufacturers and project developers responding there assume that the offshore market will pick up significantly from 2006 onwards. According to the European Wind Energy Association EWEA the project developers have plans in Northern Europe alone for a total of more than 20 000 MW. That is equivalent to the installed power built on shore in two decades of commercial wind use (23 000 MW). The importance of offshore is highlighted by a special themepark Offshore@WindEnergy at the WindEnergy 2004 – International Trade Fair to be held in Hamburg from 11 to 14 May. The high-quality framework programme includes among other things financing questions for offshore projects. All in all, there will be some 300 exhibitors from 17 countries presenting their worldwide innovations and services at WindEnergy 2004.

The main location for concentrated offshore knowledge is the themepark Offshore@WindEnergy in Hall 6. There will be a joint stand there on 54 square metres, under the leadership of the recently established industry & technology promotion association “Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Technologieförderung Rostock mbH”, bringing together nine companies from Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. All the partners at the joint stand are active in the offshore/maritime industry, and cover the whole value chain of this market with their products and services – from suppliers of design software to component manufacture and project development, through to logistics companies. “We feel that Rostock offers outstanding location conditions for development of offshore technology”, says Michael Sturm, Managing Director of the Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Technologieförderung Rostock. Its participation at WindEnergy has been made possible by funding support from the Land of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

There are a large number of offshore wind farms that have now been realised or are at the planning stage – for example in recent months, the most powerful offshore turbine type off the coast of Ireland, installed in the Arklow Bank wind farm – it has seven 3.6 MW turbines from GE Energy (Hall 4) with a rotor diameter of 104 metres and hub height 73.5 metres, already running in trial operation at the location about 10 miles from the coast. In its “Demonstration Phase” with 25 MW the wind farm is to cover the electricity demand of 16 000 households. The manufacturer, Nordex AG (Hall 7) has proven large-scale turbines for the offshore market, with ratings of 2.3 MW (N80) and 2.5 MW (N90). “Our current pilot project Baltic 1 in the German part of the Baltic Sea is planned to operate with these turbines”, reports Ralf Peters, Press Officer of Nordex AG. Nordex is to deliver at least 11 of the total number of 21 wind turbines, and these will be made in Rostock. Erection is scheduled for summer 2005.

REpower AG (Hall 6) will set up the prototype for their 5 MW turbine in Brunsbüttel in summer 2004. It is designed for offshore operation. “All the components have been completed, and we will start on the foundation for the turbine at the end of April. For 2005 we are already planning to set up a series of further turbines”, announces Bettina Linden, Press Officer of REpower AG. The wind farm at the Danish location Nysted/Rødsand was completed in 2003, comprising 72 BONUS 2.3 MW turbines. AN Windenergie GmbH (Hall 7) was involved in that project. Each of these turbines produced 2.580 million kWh from the time of commissioning in summer up to the end of 2003.

Offshore wind farms also open up new markets for companies and institutions such as service companies in coastal areas, shipping companies, ports, steel construction companies and shipyards. The WindEnergy in Hamburg, with a large number of exhibitors from the areas of offshore/maritime cover the whole bandwidth of this market – for example with the DEWI Offshore Certification Centre (Hall 6), the seaports of Lower Saxony (Hall 5) and the SAL Shipping Agency (Hall 7).

These offshore projects involve very substantial capital expenditure – EWEA expects that by 2010 there will be wind farms with a total output of 5000 MW installed offshore; the capital expenditure required for that is likely to be around nine billion euros. Methods of financing major offshore projects will be the topic of numerous presentations and workshops at the WindEnergy Specialist Fair on the Thursday afternoon. International experts will be there to cover the whole of the financing process – from banks to project development organisations such as Fieldstone and insurance companies such as Marsh, through to classification societies such as Det Norske Veritas.

The WindEnergy 2004 – International Trade Fair (11 to 14 May) is a global platform for manufacturers and component suppliers, planners, financing institutes, measurement and certification agencies and specialists from research and development, to help them continue the expansion of this market of the future. Opening times are from 9am to 6pm, with extended opening up to 8pm on the Thursday. The official international partners of WindEnergy are EWEA, VDMA and DEWI, and AWEA and InWEA. Admission charges (incl. catalogue) for on-line/at-the-gate registration: 4-day ticket €33/€48; 2-day ticket €28/€38; day ticket €23/€30.50; school & university students and trainees €8/€13. Further information is available at the website www.windenergy-hamburg.de