Areva contract for Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm in Germany

Areva has secured a new contract to continue service and maintenance of its wind turbines at the Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm in Germany.

 

The five-year deal signed with project operating consortium Deutsche Offshore-Testfeld und Infrastruktur (DOTI) extends a previous contract started in 2009. The first contract included the commissioning of the six M5000-116 5MW wind turbines.

Areva will provide the complete maintenance for its wind turbines, including the inspection and exchange of wearing parts, from its service base in Emden.

The turbines will be monitored year-round from Areva’s Bremerhaven center in Germany.

DOTI managing director Wilfried Hube said: “EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall have four offshore wind farms in operations or under construction in the North Sea. Alpha ventus is the project which pioneered this development, in cooperation with AREVA.

“The pursuit of collaboration with local suppliers also secures jobs in German coastal regions.”

Areva Wind Business unit CEO Arnaud Bellanger said: “The experience gained at alpha ventus will give us an important advantage for the maintenance of our entire offshore installed base in Germany.”

Located 45km off the island of Borkum, Alpha ventus wind farm generates enough energy for about 70,000 households.

The project, which was commissioned in 2010, generated about 15% of power over the estimated total.

Since 2011, the wind farm fed an annual average of about 253.14 million kilowatt hours of power into the German transmission grid.