London — Germany's 385 MW Arkona offshore wind farm has supplied the first electricity into the German grid with 44 of the 60 turbines now installed and being put into operation step by step, the project developers said Monday.
The Eur1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) project jointly developed by German utility E.ON and Norway's oil major Equinor, is slightly ahead of schedule with full commissioning scheduled for early 2019.
The project developers aim to mount the remaining 16 turbines this year, with turbine commissioning proceeding step by step, they said.
The offshore substation, turbine foundations and offshore cabling were all installed ahead of schedule, the developers said, adding the project "continues to strive for completion in record time".
"It only took one year from the first monopile installation to the first electricity feed-in. Rarely before has a project been built so straightforward," the head of E.ON renewables unit, Sven Utermoehlen, said.
Grid connection will be through the Ostwind-1 cable being developed by TSO 50 Hertz on track for 2019 completion.
The statement by the project developers did not give a project update on Ostwind-1 which consists of four cables also supplying the grid link for Iberdrola's 350 MW Wikinger offshore wind farm.
The estimated 1.5 TWh annual output from Arkona will be marketed by Engie for four years, it said in a separate statement.
German offshore wind capacity will rise above 6 GW this winter, up from 5.4 GW by end-2017, with the 396 MW Merkur and 450 MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 in the North Sea also nearing completion.
The remaining projects under legacy feed-in-tariffs will bring installed capacity to 7.7 GW by 2020.
Beyond 2020, Germany is moving to an auction system with over 3 GW awarded in two tenders including four zero-subsidy bids to be realized by 2025 latest.
For 2030, the government has maintained a 15 GW target due to inner-German grid bottlenecks and despite the country's northern states calling for a boost to 20 GW.
