Danish utility Dong Energy has bought the 238MW Riffgrund West 2 offshore wind farm from German wind power developer Energiekontor.
Energiekontor has submitted an application for approval of the German North Sea project and Dong expects construction of Riffgrund West 2 could begin from 2020 — subject to grid connection approval and the utility making a final investment decision.
German grid regulator Bnetza is likely to allocate offshore grid connections for wind farm projects to be built from the start of the next decade in around 2017-18.
Dong Energy is already developing the 312MW Riffgrund West 1 wind farm, in which it has a 50pc stake with private-sector companies Kirkbi holding 32pc and William Demant Invest holding 18pc. Riffgrund West 1 is under construction and expected to start commercial operations in mid-2015. And the firm is developing the 330MW Gode 1 and 252MW Gode 2 offshore wind farms in the German North Sea and expects both to be fully commissioned in 2016.
German offshore wind capacity is expected rise to around 3.5GW by the end of next year because the first wave of projects is now progressing steadily, German wind power lobby group BWE and German engineering federation VDMA said earlier this year. Total offshore wind capacity connected to the German grid stood at 628MW by the end of June.
Germany plans to have offshore wind capacity of 6.5GW by 2020, rising to 15GW by 2030, under the government's revised renewable energies law that entered into force on 1 August.
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