Germany’s first offshore wind turbine at five megawatts has finished construction yesterday (July 15). The turbine is part of the alpha ventus project, a €250-million venture 45 kilometers north of Borkum Island. The project is expected to power 50,000 homes. Eleven more turbines are under construction while all turbines will be operational by this year’s end.

A consortium between EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall, DOTI (Deutsche Offshore- Testfeld und Infrastruktur GmbH) is developing the alpha ventus. Fifty specialists are assigned at the open sea site. Construction of the turbines began in mid-April this year. Work on the turbines has been on-schedule.

"For the first time, wind turbines of this size are being constructed this far offshore in waters up to 30 meters deep," said the overall project leader of alpha ventus, Wilfried Hube (EWE).

Launching of the first wind turbine will be the project’s next step, to be followed by connection to the offshore transformer station in the coming weeks. EWE will supervise the overall operational management of the new wind farm upon completion.

The consortium is composed of a 40-employee team from the three companies. DOTI, the joint company, was established in June 2006. It has constructed the offshore transformer station needed to transmit the generated energy onshore as early as September last year. The underwater cable which will connect the transformer station to the national grid had also been installed last year by Transpower GmbH (formerly E.ON Netz).


- Jen Balboa