Chancellor Merkel Opens Arkona

Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Kjell-Børge Freiberg have officially opened the Arkona wind farm in the German Baltic Sea.

The commissioning comes after transmission system operator 50Hertz connected the Arkona and Wikinger offshore wind farms to its transmission grid. The projects were connected via the Ostwind 1 grid connection.

“I would like to praise E.ON for its excellent work on the development and currently the operation of Arkona. The project has been delivered on schedule and below budget,” said Pål Eitrheim, Equinor’s Executive Vice President for New Energy Solutions.

“Based on our 40 years of experience from offshore operations Equinor has been actively involved in the project development. With Arkona we are well positioned for further growth in offshore wind in the Baltic Sea.”

Arkona comprises 60 Siemens Gamesa 6MW turbines located 35km northeast of the island of Rügen. The 385MW project, owned by E.ON and Equinor, produced first power in September last year.