First Turbine Up at Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3 Offshore Wind Farm in Germany

June 20, 2024, by Adnan Memija

The first Siemens Gamesa SG 11.0-200 DD wind turbine has been installed at the 913 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany.

Orsted Borkum Riffgrund 3 first turbine — *Source: Ørsted*

Located approximately 72 kilometres off the coast of Lower Saxony, the Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm will feature a total of 83 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, each with a rated capacity of 11 MW.

The project’s first wind turbine was installed by Seaway7’s newbuild Seaway Ventus. The installation will also be carried out in equal parts by Wind Osprey from Cadeler.

Borkum Riffgrund 3 is jointly owned by Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure. This milestone for Borkum Riffgrund 3 follows shortly after the delivery of the first power from the 253 MW Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm, which Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure are building simultaneously with Borkum Riffgrund 3.

“Borkum Riffgrund 3 is an icebreaker in offshore wind. It was the first offshore wind project in the world to be awarded on a merchant basis, and it’s the first offshore wind farm in Germany to break the 900 MW-mark. I’m proud to see that the first turbine is now installed, and we look forward to completing this milestone project,” said Peter Obling, Head of Continental Europe at Ørsted.

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Both Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 sites are located close to Ørsted’s operational offshore wind farms, Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2, and Gode Wind 1 and 2.

The two additional wind farms will almost double Ørsted’s installed offshore wind capacity in Germany to approx. 2.5 GW.

In the German offshore wind auctions in 2017 and 2018, Ørsted was awarded the rights to build Borkum Riffgrund 3 with bids of EUR 0 per MWh – a first for offshore wind.

Once the offshore wind farm has been commissioned in 2025, offtake agreements totalling 786 MW have been entered into with Amazon (350 MW), BASF (186 MW), Covestro (100 MW), Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft/REWE Group (100 MW), and Google (50 MW).

“We have been developing and building Borkum Riffgrund 3 since winning the auction in 2017 and 2018. Achieving the first installed wind turbine is a great success for the project and a proud moment for the entire team. Our full focus is now on continuing to complete the project safely and on schedule in its final stages so that we can hand over the wind farm to operations in 2025,” said Felix Gschnell, Programme Director for Borkum Riffgrund 3 and Gode Wind 3