Energy yield 2014: Germany’s first offshore windfarm “alpha ventus” continues to operate according to plan after four years of operation

The yield is therefore 248.73 GWh per year on average and exceeds the generation forecasts by around seven per cent.

In the 2014 operating year, the yield was slightly below average at 235.6 GWh of climate-friendly energy, but still exceeded the forecast by 1.5 per cent. This relatively slightly lower output is attributable to the replacement of some components during the course of the year. The months of January and December 2014 were particularly high yielding with over 30 GWh of generated electricity in each month.

If the power generated during the commissioning period is added to the four full operating years, alpha ventus has generated over 1.2 terawatt-hours of electricity since 2009.

Follow-up projects in Germany

With the inclusion of the first follow-up projects to alpha ventus, EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall are currently realising and operating offshore-windfarms with a total output of 744 megawatts in the German Bight.

EWE: The “Riffgat” offshore-windfarm in the vicinity of Borkum was completely erected by July 2013, and has been feeding environmentally-friendly power into the German grid since February 2014. The 30 wind turbines have a total generation capacity of 108 megawatts.

E.ON: The "Amrumbank West“ offshore-windfarm lies to the north of Helgoland in the German Bight, and will achieve a total output of 288 megawatts from its 80 wind turbines. The substation and the first 60 foundations were installed in 2014. Installation of the wind turbines follows in 2015.

Vattenfall: The “DanTysk” offshore-windfarm lying to the west of Sylt was completely installed in 2014 and is already delivering electricity. The 80 wind turbines with a total generation capacity of 288 megawatts have been successively commissioned since December 2014, and are all scheduled to be connected up to the grid by early 2015. Work on the “Sandbank” offshore-windfarm lying approx. 35 kilometres to the west begins in summer 2015: it will have 72 4-megawatt wind turbines and a total output capacity of 288 MW.