E.ON celebrates inauguration of one of the world’s largest Offshore Wind Farms in the Baltic Sea

Today the Danish Climate and Energy Minister Lykke Friis officially inaugurated E.ON’s offshore wind farm Rösand II. Rödsand lies between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland and is currently the largest of E.ON’s six offshore wind farms and one of the largest operating in the world today. With a capacity of 207 megawatt it will provide enough clean, renewable energy for 200,000 homes.

The turbines, each with capacity of 2.3 MW and rotor diameters of 93 meters, are supplied by Siemens. E.ON has invested approximately €400 million in this wind farm. The project was completed three month ahead of schedule – an extraordinary success in the still young offshore wind industry.

With this inauguration E.ON has reached a further milestone in the expansion of offshore wind power. Besides Rödsand, two other E.ON offshore wind farms became fully operational this year: Robin Rigg, one of the U.K.’s largest offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 180 megawatts, and alpha ventus in Germany, the world’s first far shore, deep water wind farm. E.ON is also constructing, with partners, the London Array which with capacity of 1 gigawatt when fully completed will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Since 2001 E.ON has invested more than €1 billion for offshore projects and will further expand its capacity with a project pipeline of more than 4 gigawatts.

Frank Mastiaux, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables said: “E.ON has made a significant contribution to the growth of Europe’s offshore wind sector. Projects like Rödsand and alpha ventus clearly demonstrate that E.ON has gained a strong expertise to manage this young and very complex technology. We now have gathered enough experience to master the further challenges in the German North and Baltic Seas. Offshore Wind is a strategic focus of E.ON’s renewable business.”

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by E.ON Group management and other information currently available to E.ON. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. E.ON AG does not intend, and does not assume any liability whatsoever, to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

[mappress]

Source: eon,October 12, 2010