German offshore wind farm advances despite lawsuit

Market: Electricity
28/04/14

German environmental group Nabu has filed a complaint against the 288MW Butendiek offshore wind farm that is being built by German wind power developer WPD in the German North Sea.

But the complaint has no immediate impact on the construction of the project, which is located 32km off Sylt and scheduled to come on line fully in 2015.

In a legal complaint filed to the Cologne administrative court, Nabu called for an immediate halt to Butendiek's construction to "prevent damage to the marine nature and a breach against prevailing nature conservation law". The environmental group claims that the wind park will endanger the porpoise population and seabirds in the EU bird sanctuary off the island of Sylt.

WPD is continuing construction of the project, despite Nabu's action. The permits for Butendiek are final and valid, the company said. Construction of Butendiek started in March.

Federal maritime authority BSH only recently confirmed that the permits for several wind parks, including Butendiek, meet strict requirements to protect marine nature and conform to conservation laws.

Nabu's legal complaint is directed against the federal agency of nature conservation as as a representative of the German government.

There are currently nine German offshore wind farms under construction, with a total capacity of around 2.6GW. Offshore wind farms with a capacity of 1.2-1.5GW are scheduled to come on line in 2014, with a further 1GW scheduled to come on line in 2015. This will significantly increase Germany's installed offshore wind power capacity, which currently stands at around 600MW.

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German offshore wind farm advances despite lawsuit

Related news posts

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