Wind industry news : Spain-based Iberdrola says that its Wikinger offshore wind farm built at a cost of €1.4 billion in the Baltic Sea has been connected to the German electricity grid.

The German offshore wind farm, which has a capacity of 350MW, is capable of providing clean energy to 350,000 German homes.

The Wikinger offshore wind farm is located around 34km north-east of the Ruegen island and the energy it generates is equivalent to more than 20% of the power consumed by the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The Wikinger offshore wind project is made up of 70 AD 5-135 turbines from Adwen with each having a power generation capacity of 5MW. All the offshore wind turbines were installed in October last year.

According to Spanish energy company Iberdrola, the Wikinger offshore wind project was wrapped up in 18 months. This German offshore wind farm avoids around 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from entering into the atmosphere every year which would have been the case with a conventional thermal power plant.

The Wikinger offshore wind project had created more than 2,000 construction and manufacturing jobs, stated Iberdrola.

The Spanish energy company, in a statement on the latest milestone of the Wikinger offshore wind farm, stated: “Iberdrola has met the demanding time frame set to build Wikinger thanks to the company’s extraordinary multidisciplinary and multinational team, fully engaged with the project, and the collaboration of all its suppliers and contractors.

“In the process, it overcame all kinds of technology challenges and complications caused by the Baltic Sea’s extreme weather conditions during autumn and winter.”

The Wikinger offshore wind farm marks the second offshore wind farm of the Spanish energy company following the 2014-commissioned West of Duddon Sands in the Irish Sea.

The West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm has a power generation capacity of 389MW and was constructed with over £1.6 billion of investment.

Iberdrola jointly owns the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind project alongside Orsted (formerly Dong Energy). The West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm meets the power consumption needs of about 300,000 British homes.

Iberdrola has another offshore wind project in its pipeline in the form of the East Anglia One wind farm in the British North Sea which is slated to begin operations in 2020. The Irish offshore wind farm is being built with a capital of £2.5 billion by Iberdrola subsidiary – ScottishPower Renewables in partnership with Swedish energy company Vattenfall.

For more wind industry news and updates on the Wikinger offshore wind farm, keep following Business-News-Today.com.

  Baltic Sea, Germany, Iberdrola, Spanish energy company, Wikinger offshore wind farm, Wind industry news