The first turbine at the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm is in place and will deliver the first fossil-free electricity to the Danish grid shortly, Vattenfall said.
Once completed, the 605 MW Kriegers Flak will comprise 72 8 MW Siemens Gamesa turbines and be the largest offshore wind farm in Denmark. The turbines come with a “power boost” option which can increase their output to up to 8.4 MW.
The first turbine was installed at the site in the Baltic Sea on Wednesday, 27 January.
The individual parts of the turbines are assembled at Port of Roenne on the Danish island of Bornholm. They are then shipped in sets of four to the construction site at sea located 15-40 kilometres off the Danish coast.
“We are proud that the first of many turbines at Kriegers Flak is now in place and ready to produce electricity,” said Jacob Nørgaard Andersen , Country Manager at Vattenfall Denmark.
”We expect that households and industry one of the coming days will receive the first fossil-free electricity from the turbine. It is an important milestone in the project, it is happening on schedule and it is fantastic to see the offshore wind farm take shape.”
The installation follows last week’s granting of the license for the wind farm to produce electricity by the Danish Energy Agency.
Full Commissioning by Year-End
Despite the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction of Kriegers Flak is generally proceeding according to plan and scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2021, at the latest, Vattenfall said.
“Kriegers Flak makes a significant contribution in the Nordic region to our goal of enabling fossil-free living. It is a unique project integrating offshore wind production and interconnectivity between two countries – Denmark and Germany. And at the same time, it signals that the exploitation of the Baltic Sea’s huge potential for offshore wind is now gaining momentum,” said Catrin Jung , Head of Offshore Wind in Vattenfall.
Compared to 2019, Kriegers Flak will increase the Danish production of wind energy by 16 per cent or enough to cover the annual electricity consumption of approximately 600,000 Danish households, Vattenfall said.
Vattenfall is Denmark’s largest developer of offshore wind and is, in addition to Kriegers Flak, also building two offshore wind farms off Jutland’s west coast: Vesterhav Nord and Vesterhav Syd .