EWE takes part in a hitherto unique project
Consortium Realizes First Offshore Wind Farm in the German North Sea
Oldenburg, October 2, 2006. The first offshore wind energy farm in the German North Sea is to be created in a hitherto unique joint project undertaken by the three German energy companies EWE, E.ON Energie and Vattenfall Europe. The project has now been agreed by the companies in a joint statement. Additional project partners are wind facility manufacturers and the Federal Environment Ministry.
A total of twelve wind energy generators of the 5-megawatt-class are planned to be erected by 2008. The test area is located approximately 45 kilometers off the East Frisian island of Borkum. According to current plans around 175 million euros is to be invested in the project.
“We are conducting pioneering work in the further development of renewable energy utilization under technically very demanding conditions”, emphasized Dr. Jörg Buddenberg, head of the Department for Environmental Technology at EWE. Such an intensive, cross-company cooperation to set up an offshore wind farm was hitherto unique in Germany. The research findings would then be made available to all key offshore players.
Electricity from offshore generators was an important building block in the future energy supply, said Buddenberg explaining the EWE commitment. However, for the further development of offshore wind energy reliable political framework conditions and an appropriate remuneration would be required. Things could still be improved on in this respect, Buddenberg went on to say. The participation in the Borkum West wind farm was a systematic continuation of the many years of commitment demonstrated by EWE in wind energy utilization. The company currently runs 41 wind energy facilities, among them several 5-megawatt-class ones.
A future expansion of electricity generation from wind energy also goes hand in hand with the expansion of the network infrastructure. According to Buddenberg, practice had shown, however, that network construction despite the careful planning by energy supply companies was not progressing at the required rate due to long-winded approval procedures. This was why it was necessary for the infrastructure acceleration act to square the environmental interests with the stipulations of the Federal Network Agency to ensure the networks run efficiently. Buddenberg finished by saying that renewable energies could also only make a long-term contribution to the low carbon economy and to a climatically friendly and sustainable energy generation if the different European transport systems were standardized.
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