2015 has been another good wind year for alpha ventus. The offshore wind farm fed 242.176 GWh of climate-friendly energy into the German power grid, and achieved an availability of 93.4 percent.
“With alpha ventus we demonstrate the huge potential of offshore wind power year after year. The 5-year average amounts to 4,120 full load hours – twice as high as onshore installations. Alpha ventus will pass the milestone of 1.5 terawatt hours of offshore-generated energy very likely in February 2016. The operators EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall have clearly achieved a great deal, and given the expansion of offshore wind power in the German Bight a major boost with the alpha ventus follow-up projects,” says Wilfried Hube, CEO of the operating company DOTI.
December 2015 was one of the most productive months for alpha ventus since its commissioning in early 2010. The record is currently held by December 2011 when the wind farm generated 36.7 GWh, only 0.6 GWh more than in 2015.
Follow-up projects in Germany
EWE: The Riffgat offshore wind farm near Borkum has been feeding climate friendly energy into the German grid since February 2014. The 30 wind turbines have a total output of 108 megawatts.
E.ON: The offshore wind farm Amrumbank West is situated north of Heligoland in the German Bight. The 80 wind turbines, with a total output of 288 megawatts, are completely connected to the grid since October 2015. The windfarm will be officially commissioned in February 2016.
Vattenfall: DanTysk was officially commissioned in April 2015. The wind farm with a total output of 288 MW lies 70 kilometres to the west of Sylt. The wind farm Sandbank with an identical output of 288 MW is currently being built in the immediate vicinity. Completion is scheduled for 2017.
alpha ventus
alpha ventus is the first German offshore wind farm to be constructed on the high seas, some 45 kilometres off the coast of Borkum. EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall established the “Deutsche Offshore-Testfeld und Infrastruktur GmbH & Co. KG“ (DOTI) in order to build and operate the alpha ventus wind farm. The research and development results of alpha ventus are incorporated into the design, construction and operation of future offshore projects. The DOTI shareholders operate the following follow-up projects in the North Sea: Riffgat (EWE), Amrumbank West (E.ON), and DanTysk (Vattenfall).
The alpha ventus pilot wind farm comprises twelve 5-megawatt class wind power turbines: six Adwen M5000 turbines and six Senvion 5M turbines. Since 2011, the alpha ventus wind farm has fed an annual average of some 247.45 million kilowatt hours of power into the grid, equivalent to the annual power consumption of approximately 71,000 average households (3,500 kWh) in Germany.
