Nordex acquiring a stake in an offshore wind power project

In the preliminary construction phase, around 70 wind turbines with a combined capacity of at least 300 megawatts are to be installed there. Given a mean wind speed of 9.6 m/s and around 3,600 full load hours, the wind farm is expected to achieve an annual energy yield of over 1,100 gigawatt/hours, sufficient to provide 282,000 households with electricity, simultaneously avoiding more than one million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Construction of the wind first turbines is planned for 2014. In this connection, the shareholders assume that permits will be awarded in 2011. The planned area has been zoned as a suitable maritime region and the preparatory work on the application process has reached an advanced stage. Nordex started work last year on developing a new multimegawatt turbine for offshore deployment.

“In Germany in particular, the targets defined in the government’s climate policy can only be achieved by the greater construction of offshore wind farms. For this reason, a market segment comprising wind turbines with an new installed capacity of over five megawatts per annum will emerge over the next few years. Following preliminary test installations in the Baltic Sea, “Arcadis Ost 1” will be our reference project in the offshore market,” says Thomas Richerich, CEO of Nordex SE.

The majority shareholder in the wind energy project company is WV Energie AG, a 50% subsidiary of Wintershall AG. The remaining 50% of WV Energie AG are owned by more than 200 German utilities. The transaction is still subject to approval by several bodies, particularly the responsible anti-trust authorities and supervisory boards.

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