A 50-50 joint venture between German power provider E.ON and the Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has awarded a contract to Siemens to supply turbines for the proposed 385MW Arkona offshore wind farm off the coast of Germany.
Under the contract, Siemens will supply, install and commission 60 SWT-6.0-154 wind turbines for the €1.2bn ($1.35bn) project situated in the Baltic Sea, 35km northeast of the Rügen island in Germany, southwest of the Danish island of Bornholm.
Planned to be commissioned in 2019, the Arkona offshore wind farm is expected to generate clean electricity required to power up to 400,000 German households.
E.ON will be responsible for the construction and operation of the wind farm, while Siemens and E.ON will provide services to the wind turbines for first two years.
The service agreement also includes round-the-clock remote monitoring of the wind turbines from the Siemens Remote Diagnostics Center in Brande, Denmark.
Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division offshore CEO Michael Hannibal said: "This is the first order for our large direct-drive offshore wind turbines for a project in the Baltic Sea.
"This is also the second offshore wind farm that we will be erecting for E.ON in German waters."
Siemens is planning to commence turbines installation in summer 2018.
E.ON Climate & Renewables CEO Michael Lewis said: "This project offers ideal conditions for further reducing the costs of offshore wind and will be a big step toward realizing our goal of making renewables truly competitive."
The project is expected to create up to 400 jobs during the two-year construction phase as well as up to 50 permanent jobs upon entering service.
Separately, E.ON has awarded VBMS a contract to install 65 inter array cables for the Arkona wind farm.
The contract’s scope includes route engineering, surveying, a pre-lay grapnel run, trenching, termination and testing of the 65 cables.
Image: A Siemens-built SWT-6.0-154 wind turbine. Photo: courtesy of Siemens.