The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm fed its first power into the German grid on 3 December, according to Ørsted, which owns the project together with Nuveen Infrastructure.
Once fully commissioned, which is expected in the first quarter of 2026, the 913 MW offshore wind farm will become the largest in Ørsted’s German portfolio.
Located about 72 kilometres off the coast in the German North Sea, Borkum Riffgrund 3 comprises 83 Siemens Gamesa 11 MW turbines, the first of which was installed in June 2024 . Wind turbine installation work was completed at the beginning of this year.
The project does not comprise an offshore substation (OSS), but its wind turbines are instead directly connected via a 66 kV link to the DolWin epsilon offshore converter platform, installed and operated by the German transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT.
The 913 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 was initially planned to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2025, but this was pushed back due to a delay in the construction of the DolWin5 offshore grid connection. The installation campaign was completed this summer, and the commissioning work started in the autumn.
The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm, once fully operational, will deliver electricity to several corporations through long-term corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs), including Google , Amazon , and BASF .
Earlier this year, Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure’s other jointly owned offshore wind farm, Gode Wind 3, was fully commissioned.
Gode Wind 3 is located close to Ørsted’s existing wind farms: Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2 and Gode Wind 1 and 2. With Borkum Riffgrund 3 and Gode Wind 3, Ørsted’s installed offshore wind power capacity in Germany increases to around 2.5 GW in early 2026, the developer says.
Operation and maintenance for all Ørsted’s German offshore wind farms is carried out from Norden-Norddeich and Emden in East Frisia.