Turbines installed at 350MW Wikinger site

GERMANY: Installation of the 70 turbines at Iberdrola's 350MW Wikinger project in the Baltic Sea has been completed.

Wikinger features 70 of Adwen's 5MW turbines

Vessels specialist Fred Olsen Windcarrier installed Adwen’s 5-135 5MW turbines approximately 30 kilometres north east of Rügen Island.

Adwen’s turbines each have a 222-tonne nacelle, a 135 metre rotor diameter, using 77.4-metre long blades, and are the largest machines installed on an Iberdrola project to date, the developer said.

Transmission system operator (TSO) 50Hertz has already installed the offshore substation and inter-array cables.

It is now performing the final cable-laying works and technical tests before the site can be fully commissioned.

Iberdrola is moving its Wikinger base to a built-for-purpose operation and maintenance (O&M) building in the port of Sassnitz on Rügen.

Announcing the completion of the turbine installation, Iberdrola stated that it sees offshore wind as "key to the company’s future", and that it was focussing on markets in the UK, Germany, France and the United States.

Iberdrola co-owns the 389MW West of Duddon Sands site operating in the Irish Sea and construction has begun at the 714MW East Anglia One project in the UK North Sea, which belongs to its UK subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables.

In France, Iberdrola is part of a consortium developing the 62 turbine, 496MW Saint-Brieuc project off the coast of Brittany.