December 2018
Nordsee One offshore wind celebrates first year of operations- Green electricity for approximately 400,000 households
- 332 megawatt (MW) wind farm energetically amortised
- More than 90 people work for the operation and maintenance of Nordsee One
Oststeinbek, 21 December 2018
One year ago today, the 332 MW Nordsee One offshore wind farm started full commercial operation. Since then, the wind farm, located approximately 40 km north of the German island of Juist, has reliably produced green electricity to supply the equivalent of approximately 400,000 German households. Nordsee One is owned by Northland Power (85%), innogy (13.5%) and Enova (1.5%).
“I can sum up the first twelve months of operations in three words: produce, preserve and prevent”, said Tim Kittelhake, Managing Director (COO) of Nordsee One GmbH. “Applying our forward-looking operation and maintenance strategy, the team successfully prevented downtimes, significantly reduced energy losses and maintained high availability of our wind turbines. If the wind was blowing, our 54 turbines were ready to produce green electricity. I am proud of the team not only for working hard but most importantly, for working safely.”
All of Nordsee One’s 54 turbines have been sending power to the grid since September 2017. Final completion was reached last year in December on schedule and within budget. The wind farm is operated and serviced from the operation and maintenance base in Norddeich (Lower-Saxony), which comprises offices, a control room, a warehouse and a workshop. In comparison to the long operational life of an offshore wind farm – with an average 20 to 30 years – the period of energy amortisation is short – statistically less than one year. This means that Nordsee One has now recovered the energy used for production and installation of the different components, as well as the prospective cost of decommissioning and recycling the turbines.
“In addition to skilled, specially-trained, and highly motivated staff, offshore wind farms require well-planned logistics and maintenance throughout their operating lives”, added Till Frohloff, Site Manager, Operations. “With its proximity to the wind farm and excellent harbor facilities, Norddeich is the ideal base for Nordsee One’s operation and maintenance activities. Further, the travel time to the wind farm is approximately 90 minutes, which is cost-efficient when it comes to managing the logistics around port-based crew transfer vessels.” More than 90 employees and service providers are responsible for site management, remote control and monitoring activities, offshore maintenance and repair work, and back office. Local staff and collaboration with locally-based companies is a key success factor in the wind farm’s operations and maintenance and maximizes value to the local community. To date, the wind farm has generated more than 1,000 GWh of green electricity.