German offshore wind developer RWE said Thursday that its offshore wind farm Kaskasi, located around 35 kilometers north of the island of Heligoland, Germany, had officially started regular operation.
With an installed capacity of 342 megawatts (MW), Kaskasi can supply the equivalent of over 400,000 households with electricity.
The 38 wind turbines of Kaskasi were successively commissioned over a four-month period.
Since the end of 2022, all turbines have been feeding green electricity into the grid.
After all required tests were successfully completed, the wind farm is now starting regular operation.
The total offshore construction time was nine months, and the investment costs for Kaskasi amounted to around 800 million euros.
Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action said: “Offshore wind is a key driver of the energy transition. Offshore wind turbines can produce more electricity during more hours per year than onshore turbines. We have thus increased the expansion targets in the German Offshore Wind Energy Act considerably to at least 30 gigawatts by 2030.
"In addition, we have made significant improvements to the legal framework and took action to speed up approval procedures. With the area development plan, we have put the foundation in place for planning the expansion of offshore wind energy in Germany. Kaskasi was the only new offshore wind farm completed off the German coast last year. Its inauguration is to mark a turning point, we now want to drive the expansion of offshore wind energy forward in a targeted and coordinated manner.”
Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG: “Our Kaskasi offshore wind farm was the only that was constructed and connected to the grid in Germany last year. Many more must follow over the coming years for Germany to reach its climate targets.
"As one of the world’s leading companies in offshore wind, RWE can contribute considerably to achieving these goals. Together with our partner we have just selected the preferred turbine supplier for the next offshore wind cluster off the German coast. The cluster will have a total capacity of up to 1.6 gigawatts. And of course, we will also take part in the large German offshore auctions in summer this year.”
Three turbines at the Kaskasi wind farm are equipped with the first rotor blades that can be recycled at the end of their life cycle.
Thanks to a new type of resin with a special chemical structure, the materials used for producing the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade can now be separated again for the first time. This process ensures that the properties of the individual materials remain intact so that they can be reused.
Marc Becker, CEO Business Unit Offshore at Siemens Gamesa: “Approximately 90 percent of a wind turbine can already be recycled. However, up to now it was not possible to recycle the rotor blades. We are now taking the crucial step to elevate the sustainability of wind turbines to the next level and be able to recycle the entire turbine by 2040 at the latest.”
RWE has also recently selected Siemens Gamesa's recyclable blades for its Sofia offshore wind farm. Read more here.
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