News Release from windfair.net

Wind Industry Profile of

windfair.net

09/24/2018

Detailed Planning Process Sets New Records

Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea has fed in green electricity into the grid for the first time. Thus the wind farm is ahead of schedule and aims to achieve a record installation time.

E.ON and partner Equinor (formerly Statoil) are announcing success stories: The Arkona offshore wind farm, which is still under construction, has been able to feed its first green electricity into the grid even before it has been completed. E.ON says a detailed planning and professionally implemented construction process have been crucial for this success. In addition, E.ON is working closely with transmission system operator 50Hertz, who was able to provide an early partial feed-in option even before the connection was completed. Now that the first of 60 turbines is online, further wind turbines will be commissioned step by step.

Sven Utermöhlen, COO of E.ON Climate & Renewables: “It only took one year from the first monopile installation to the first electricity feed-in. Rarely before has a project been built so straightforward. This is a great achievement on the part of our team and all our project partners and at the same time an important step towards further optimization of offshore wind projects.”

Pål Coldevin, head of New Energy Development at Equinor and Chairman of Arkona's Steering Committee. “The first electricity from the Arkona wind project is a milestone in the renewable energy market. We are proud to contribute to this with E.ON and the 50Hertz transmission system operator. Arkona is Equinor's fourth wind farm in Europe and an important contribution to Equinor's strategy of evolving from a focused oil and gas company to a broad energy group.”

Meanwhile, the Arkona project is in the final construction phase. The substation and all 60 foundations including connectors were installed ahead of schedule. The internal parking cabling for connecting the turbines to the substation was also installed ahead of schedule. The towers, turbines and rotors are currently being installed on the high seas. Currently, 44 of 60 wind turbines have been completed. The aim is for all turbines to be installed by the end of the year and for the 385 MW wind farm to feed renewable energy into the grid.