On this Monday, May 2, 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel shall officially open the first commercial offshore wind farm, Baltic 1.

The project with 21 wind turbines and an installed capacity of approximately 50 Megawatt has been developed since 2002 by the Bremen-based wpd group in cooperation with its partner, Wind-Project, based in Börgerende, near Rostock. After wpd took over the shares from Wind-Projekt in 2007, the ready-to-build project has been sold to the energy supplier EnBW in 2008. Based on a cooperation contract between wpd and EnBW, the wpd project team, consisting of 25 people under the leadership of Martin Lehnhoff, has carried out the project management and later the construction.

“The project is of exemplary nature in many ways,” comments the managing director of wpd offshore, Achim Berge, the present day. “Over the years, we have succeeded, in close cooperation with the state politics, to introduce a large energy supply company to offshore wind energy, integrate the local economy in many ways and construct the project without any delays. This model has been key to successful implementation and now, more projects with everyone involved shall follow.”

The wpd group is developing another 16 offshore projects in Europe, four of which are situated in Germany. The foremost amongst these four projects is the Butendiek project off the island of Sylt. The wpd team is currently negotiating the supply contracts and recruiting further investors for this 80 turbine project. Compared to other projects, the relatively short distance from the coast and shallow water depth make this project most attractive. Since this project is being planned with project financing for the first time, it would be exemplary as well and would be another important step for the furthering of offshore wind industry in Germany.

wpd
wpd is operator and developer of installations for the generation of renewable energies with a clear focus on wind power, operating in 20 countries worldwide. In total, the company has carried out projects with around 1,400 turbines and an output of 2,1 GW. Currently wpd is planning projects with 7GW in total. More over, the group is one of Europe’s leading offshore developer with a pipeline of 10 GW. One of the first commercial offshore wind plants Baltic I, attended by wpd, has been built last year. wpd develops offshore projects in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France and Italy.

Contact:
Christian Schnibbe, wpd AG, +49 421 – 168 66 25, c.schnibbe(et)wpd.de,