The first Siemens 6 MW wind turbine from the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Farm in the German North Sea started supplying the German electricity grid with green, renewable energy, just 18 months after financial close, and two months ahead of schedule.
Image of the Seajacks Scylla, from Seajacks. |
Another 66 WTGs will be installed and commissioned with an expected completion in mid-2017. WTGs are being loaded out at the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark and installed by Siemens using two vessels – Fred Olsen´s Bold Tern and Seajacks´ Scylla. Veja Mate feeds in power by its own offshore substation through BorWin Beta and then to the onshore converter station in Diele Germany.
“First power is indeed a significant milestone in the construction phase of our project,” says Henrik Scheinemann, CEO of Veja Mate.
When fully connected the Veja Mate will produce enough electricity to power 400,000 German homes relieving the environment of 700,000 tons of C02 emissions annually for the next 25 years.
Veja Mate is a 402 MW, US$2.31 billion (EUR 1.9 billion) offshore wind project owned by the Highland Group Holdings, Siemens Financial Services and CI II managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
Construction started on the 4 April 2016 and the project is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2017. It will produce over 1.6 TWh of green, renewable electricity annually.
Also today (18 January), CHC Group announced its award of a new contract with Siemens Wind Power GmbH to provide helicopter services in support of the construction of the Veja Mate offshore wind farm currently under construction.
“We are excited to work with Siemens to support this landmark project,” says Mark Abbey, CHC regional director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Last year, we celebrated the successful completion of the Gemini windfarm project in October 2016 after providing nine months of support for construction of the new farm offshore North East Holland from Den Helder. We are excited to continue to build on our successful relationship with Siemens, supported by CHC’s decades of experience supporting a range of energy customers, as we continue to evolve and diversify our services and technology to best meet their needs.”
Flights supporting the operation from CHC's base in Den Helder using AW 139s began in the beginning of January 2017.