At the end of August the construction of the 400MW Global Tech I wind farm was completed with the installation of the last of the 80 Areva M5000-11 6 turbines.
The construction has been within budget. Global Tech I is located approximately 180km northwest of Bremerhaven, in the German North Sea in water depths of 40m. The project is owned by Global Tech I Offshore Wind GmbH who gained approval for the project from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographie Agency (BSH) in 2006. First main construction activities started in August 2012 with the preparations for the installation of the tripod foundations. The offshore substation was installed in May 2013.
Transmission grid operator TenneT wants to commence with test operation of the grid connection via BorWin beta and the interplay of the overall system of connection and wind farm during the fourth quarter this year. During this test phase the wind turbines will contribute small portions of electricity to the grid.
The regular grid connection is expected to be available in early 2015. The wind farm will then be feeding enough energy into the national grid to annually supply 445,000 households with electricity. 38 persons are working around the clock on the Global Tech I substation. From a control station at the company’s headquarterin Hamburg the wind farm will be monitored.
Image: globaltech