One of Europe’s largest municipal utilities, Trianel, has officially cut the ribbon at its 200MW Borkum West 2.1 offshore wind farm.
This is the first offshore wind project owned by municipal utilities with 50% of them coming from North Rhine-Westphalia.
Johannes Remmel, Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKULNV), said at the ceremony that NRW receives 23% of offshore wind revenues.
The 40-turbine wind farm, which entered the construction phase in September 2011, faced several delays due to problems with the grid connection managed by TenneT.
Located 45 kilometres offshore Borkum island, the project features 5MW AREVA Wind M5000-116 turbines.
Trianel expects wind farm to produce enough electricity for around 200,000 households.
The company will make an investment decision for the second phase of Borkum West 2 next year. In case the project gets the green light, it will add an additional 200MW to Trianel’s portfolio.