EnBW Hohe See and Albatros in Offshore Construction Mode

EnBW has started the offshore construction on two wind farms in the German North Sea – the 497MW Hohe See and the 112MW Albatros. 

Pacific Osprey is currently being loaded with the monopiles and will soon depart the port of Vlissingen in the Netherlands. After a journey to the construction site lasting around 12 hours, the 72-metre monopiles will be installed in the seabed. A total of 87 monopiles and transition pieces will be installed on the two sites.

At peak times, more than 500 employees will be working at the site, with 40 ships involved in the construction work. The project is being coordinated by the offshore branch of EnBW in Hamburg.

“EnBW Hohe See and Albatros are together the largest offshore project currently being constructed in Germany,” said Dirk Güsewell, Head of Portfolio Development at EnBW.

“We are thus strengthening our position as one of the leading offshore project developers and operators in Germany.”

EnBW Hohe See is located 95 kilometres north of Borkum and 100 kilometres northwest of Helgoland, while Albatros is being constructed in the immediate vicinity.

In 2018, the foundations and the transformer station for Hohe See will be installed and the cables for the wind farm laid. In 2019, the wind turbines and the transformer station for Albatros will be erected. Both wind farms are due to be placed into operation by the end of 2019.

In contrast to EnBW Baltic 1 and Baltic 2, EnBW has not set up a central harbour for Hohe See and Albatros. As a result, each contractor will deliver the components to the construction field from different harbours.

The construction office is located at the Hamburg branch, where a total of around 150 employees work on all the offshore projects at EnBW. The service station for the offshore wind farms in the North Sea is due to be constructed from autumn 2018 in Emden and will start operating in 2019.

Siemens Gamesa has been commissioned to supply and install 87 SWT-7.0-154 wind turbines including the foundations and the transformer platform for Albatros. The contractual partner for the array cabling at the wind farm is VBMS GmbH, while a consortium consisting of Engie Fabricom, Iemants NV and CG Holdings Belgium NV is responsible for the transformer platform for Hohe See.

The Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge Inc owns 49.9 percent of the shares in both wind farms. EnBW will retain the remaining 50.1 percent in both projects.