Siemens and MPI have completed the installation of all the 72 wind turbines at the 288MW Sandbank offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, three months ahead of schedule.

Located approximately 90km west of the island of Sylt in the German Bight, the project features 72 SWT-4.0-130 offshore wind turbines to generate green electricity required to power more than 400,000 households.

The offshore wind turbines are supported by grounded monopile structures which are installed at depths ranging between 26m and 33m.

Sandbank project director Niels Bjaert said: “It’s foremost the result of very good planning, selection of a good installation set up, contractual negotiations and monitoring, following up, mitigating risks and hard work.”

The wind farm is 51% owned by Vattenfall and 49% by Stadwerke München (SWM).

Vattenfall said that the 65 of the total turbines have already entered service delivering electricity to the German grid.

Vattenfall project technical head Martin Zappe said: “The technology deployed on the project as well as the co-operation between all involved parties have gained a lot in terms of maturity.

“We will use these experiences for future projects to implement them as cost efficient as possible, also with regards to the new auction system for coming offshore projects in Germany.”  

The €1.2bn wind project, which is scheduled to be fully commissioned in near future, is designed to have annual power production capacity of 1.4 terrawatt hours.


Image: The Sandbank offshore wind farm in the German North Sea features Siemens-built turbines. Photo: courtesy of Siemens AG.