German Federal Police Recovers Broken Off He Dreiht Wind Turbine Blade

German Federal Police has recovered a detached wind turbine rotor blade that was drifting in the North Sea between the operational Hohe See offshore wind farm and the He Dreiht project, which is currently under construction.

According to the Federal Police Inspectorate in Cuxhaven, authorities were notified on 24 July about a broken rotor blade floating between EnBW’s Hohe See and He Dreiht offshore wind farms after recovery attempts by on-site work vessels proved unsuccessful.

Following coordination with Germany’s Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV), a patrol vessel was dispatched to secure the 20-metre-long blade section floating in the sea and redirect passing vessel traffic, as the blade posed a significant hazard to navigation as it was drifting just below the water surface, making it difficult to detect, according to the federal police.

The blade was first towed to the patrol vessel by a police boat before being hauled aboard via the vessel’s stern slipway. It was cut into several sections during the operation to enable its recovery and was offloaded by crane in Cuxhaven on 27 July.

The blade has been reported to have broken off from one of the wind turbines at the He Dreiht offshore wind farm, where turbine installation is currently nearing completion, with the wind farm expected to enter full operation this summer.

The 960 MW He Dreiht is located approximately 85 kilometres northwest of Borkum and will comprise 64 Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines, the first of which was installed by Cadeler’s installation vessel Wind Orca on 24 April 2025.

At the beginning of this year, EnBW reported that half of the wind turbines were in place, and Cadeler said its newly acquired vessel Wind Keeper was ready to start supporting wind turbine installation at the German project site.

In its results for the first quarter of 2026, published in May, the developer said 45 wind turbines were installed by that time.

OffshoreWIND.biz has contacted EnBW and Vestas, with the companies yet to respond.

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