Vattenfall has announced that it will build the €1.2 billion Sandbank offshore wind farm in the German North Sea in partnership with Stadtwerke München.The Swedish utility has a 51 per cent stake in the project.
Sandbank will be built 90 km west of the island of Sylt in water depths of 24-33 m, and 20 km to the northwest of DanTysk, Vattenfall and Stadtwerke München's first joint wind farm, which is expected to begin operation next year.
Siemens has received an order to supply the Sandbank wind farm with 72 Siemens SWT-4.0-130 wind turbines - the latest generation of G4 platform wind turbines.
With a rotor diameter measuring 130 meters, Siemens says the SWT-4.0-130 delivers optimum energy yield even at low and moderate wind speeds. The 63-meter-long aeroelastic rotor blades also contribute to efficiency; they are designed to be flexible under high wind loads, and can be manufactured with up to 20 per cent reduced mass compared to conventional rotor blades.
Vattenfall also has contracted Siemens to perform maintenance services on the Sandbank installations for an initial period of five years. Given the close proximity to DanTysk, Siemens says a 'pioneering service plan' for the project will utilise joint operations to drive down the maintenance costs of both projects.
Following project commissioning, a Service Operation Vessel fitted with living accommodations for technicians and a workshop equipped with spare parts on board will take up position between the DanTysk and Sandbank wind farms. A helicopter will provide additional deployment readiness to enable crew to be ferried between land, the SOV and the wind turbines, irrespective of weather and sea conditions.
Construction is due to begin on Sandbank in summer 2015.
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