Breakthrough in the expansion of offshore wind energy

- Costs must be assumed by the power grid operators
- Adoption of the pursuant Act on Friday

Hamburg/Berlin, Germany, 25th October 2006. The expansion of offshore wind energy in Germany has taken a great step forward: the grand coalition is expected to adopt the so-called Infrastructure Act on this coming Friday. Among other things, it is supposed to obligate energy companies to assume the costs for connecting offshore wind energy to the power grid. This results in a substantial cost relief for the operators of offshore wind energy turbines, as the costs for connecting to the power grid represent a large part of the investments in offshore projects. This shifting of the costs to grid operators is valid for a limited timeframe; construction of offshore turbines must have begun before 31 December 2011.

Adoption of this Act will eliminate significant hurdles and the backlog in investments that have existed for years in regard to the expansion of wind energy in the German parts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, CEO of REpower Systems AG, is pleased about this development: "With this legislation a new chapter has been opened in the supply of electrical power for Germany. With this, offshore wind power and conventional power plants on land are now on equal terms. Moreover, our customers now have planning security for their offshore projects – while at the same time the attractiveness of such projects will be increased considerably by the cost reductions of up to 30 percent".

With its REpower 5M wind energy turbine, REpower Systems has positioned itself as a leading manufacturer in the area of offshore technology. Along with its onshore prototype, installed in 2004 in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), a 5M was successfully erected for the first time at the end of August of this year for a demonstrator project off the Scottish coast – at a water depth of 44 metres. Altogether, wind farms with a total output of more than 5,000 megawatts have already been approved in the German parts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. A major part of this planning is based on the REpower 5M 5-megawatt turbine.