After its successful completion of the offshore wind farm Butendiek off the island of Sylt, the company wpd AG is continuing its work in the German North Sea. Yesterday evening the first monopile deep foundation of the nearshore wind farm Nordergründe was laid.

“We are delighted with our positive start at the construction site. The team has done an excellent job so that following our extensive preparations we have now been able to start work on the foundation structures. And commissioning of the wind farm is planned for the end of 2016,“ according to Achim Berge Olsen, Managing Director of wpd offshore GmbH.

wpd is responsible for the construction and operation of the 111 MW Project. Overall a total of 18 Senvion Type 6.2M126 plants are to be set up at the mouth of the Weser near the coast. The wind park is to be established in water depths of up to ten metres within the 12-mile zone of the German North Sea and situated 15 km north-east of the island of Wangerooge. Power will be supplied via an individual connection by the network operator Tennet.

Nordergründe is a unique project. It is the first German offshore project whose equipment is to be supplied and installed exclusively by manufacturers resident and operating in the north-west region of Germany. Besides Senvion (turbines) the companies involved are Ambau (foundations), BVT (transformer stations), NSW (cabling within the wind park) and Bilfinger (installation).

Financing for the project was finalised in June 2015 with the European Investment Bank and KfW IPEX. Besides wpd, since the end of the last year the Gothaer insurance group has also been involved as a provider of equity capital.

About wpd
wpd develops and operates onshore and offshore wind farms, and is actively engaged in 18 countries around the world, the head office is in Bremen. The company has realised wind energy projects with around 1,900 turbines and an output of 3,600 MW, and is planning further onshore wind projects with a total of 6,700 MW. With an order pipeline of 8,000 MW, wpd AG is also one of Europe’s leading developers of offshore wind farmswww.wpd.de