Vattenfall and Siemens have signed a contract for the supply and installation of 80, 3.6MW turbines at the 288MW Sandbank offshore wind farm.
The project, formerly known as Sandbank 24, is being developed 90km west of Sylt, in the German North Sea. Installation is expected to begin in 2015, Vattenfall said today.
The contract also fulfils a precondition for obtaining an unconditional pledge from TenneT that the project will be connected to the onshore transmission network.
The deal with Siemens only takes effect when TenneT grants this pledge — Vattenfall hopes to receive it before the end of this month — and when Vattenfall decides to invest.
Sandbank was granted a construction permit in 2004. At the time, the project was owned by Sandbank24 of Oldenburg, which was in turn owned by a firm known as Projekt, headed by individuals Ubbo de Witt and Heike Kroeger, and later sold to Vattenfall Europe Windkraft in November 2011.
According to an update to the permit dated 15 December 2011, project construction work must begin before the end of 2016.
The project looks likely to share the planned 864MW SylWin1 cable, slated by TenneT for completion in spring 2014. Sandbank will form part of a cluster with the DanTysk and Nördlichergrund offshore wind projects.
Installation of the 288MW Dan Tysk project, owned by Vattenfall and Stadtwerke München, will begin before the end of this year, Vattenfall confirmed in today's statement. Nördlichergrund is owned by investment fund Blackstone. In 2011, it said that construction would begin in 2013, with completion likely in 2016.
.png)
.png)
