Second Offshore Wind Farm Decommissioning on the Way

DONG Energy is preparing to decommission world’s first offshore wind farm, located off Danish island of Lolland.

After 25 years of operation, Vindeby’s turbines are worn down and therefore the company is preparing to retire the wind farm, said Leif Winther, who is responsible for DONG Energy’s Danish offshore wind farms. In the summer of 1991, the 4.95MW Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm, comprising eleven 450kW wind turbines, fed the first offshore wind energy to the Danish grid.

The same way it allowed for better understanding of offshore wind conditions and turbine design and operation, the wind farm can now again bring a competitive edge to Danish companies, but this time in the dismantling of offshore wind farms, which is still an unexplored field, according to DONG Energy.

The company also said it is interested in a dialogue on the use of the wind farms’s infrastructure before the decommissioning starts.

“There are cables with an associated substation onshore, and it might be interesting for companies interested in renewable energy. We would like to enter into dialogue with them prior to dismantling the wind farm,” Winther said.

Last month, Vattenfall carried out the first ever decommissioning of an offshore wind farm by taking down its 10MW Yttre Stengrund wind farm in Sweden.