Floating LiDARs Wanted for Three New Offshore Wind Sites in German North Sea

German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has issued a call to tender for wind measurement campaign in the N-13 wind energy area in the North Sea, which encompasses three sites for offshore wind development.

BSH plans to carry out three one-year in-situ measurements with three independent measuring devices, which will enable assessment of the wind conditions within the N-13 area. The measurements concern the parameters wind speed, wind direction, humidity, air pressure, air temperature and water surface temperature.

The Agency opened the tender on 21 October and is accepting applications until 22 November.

According to a prior information notice, published in July, the one-year campaign is planned to be performed by using three floating LiDAR systems.

The three areas are N-13.1 (500 MW), N-13.2 (1,000 MW), and N-13.3 (2,000 MW) in the North Sea and are part of Germany’s new draft Site Development Plan, which was released this Summer.

The sites, expected to be auctioned off in 2026/2027, are located some 45 to 70 kilometres north of the existing GlobalTech I offshore wind farm, and between 30 and 45 kilometres southwest of the Sandbank offshore wind farm, also already in operation.

The 500 MW N-13.1 and the 1 GW N-13.2 are planned to be commissioned by the end of 2031, while the 2 GW N-13.3 is planned to follow suit around the same time the following year.

Wind measurement is part of the preliminary investigation of areas that BSH plans to start next year.

The new German Site Development Plan serves as a basis for the future expansion of offshore wind energy and the associated grid connections, and is already implementing the increase in expansion targets for offshore wind energy planned by the federal government.

With the draft development plan in place, areas with a planned output totalling approximately 60 GW are to be defined by the year 2038.

Earlier this year, Germany established an expansion target of at least 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, at least 40 GW by 2035, and at least 70 GW by 2045.

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