E.ON to build Arkona offshore wind farm in partnership with Norwegian energy company Statoil
E.ON is to build another offshore wind farm in German waters. The company announced today that it has decided to move forward with the Arkona project in the Baltic Sea. The wind farm is expected to be fully operational in 2019. Norwegian energy company Statoil will have a 50-percent stake and will be involved in the project from the start. E.ON will have responsibility for building and operating the wind farm. Investments in the project will be in excess of € 1.2 billion. This will make E.ON the first company to operate wind farms in both the German North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Arkona is located in the Baltic Sea, 35 kilometers northeast of Rügen Island. With an installed capacity of 385 megawatts, the wind farm will be able to provide 400,000 homes with renewable energy and displace approximately 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. It will consist of 60 six-megawatt Siemens turbines. The turbine towers will be mounted on monopile foundations installed at depths of 23 to 37 meters.
For at least the next 25 years the logistics base for the construction and subsequent operation of Arkona offshore wind farm will be the Port of Sassnitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Up to 400 people will help build the wind farm during the construction phase. Once in service, the wind farm will create up to 50 permanent jobs for highly skilled staff in operations, administration, and maintenance as well as, indirectly, another 100 jobs for external service providers.
“Arkona further exemplifies E.ON’s leadership role in expanding renewables and shaping the new energy world,” E.ON Climate & Renewables CEO Michael Lewis said. “This project offers ideal conditions for further reducing the costs of offshore wind and will be a big step toward realizing our goal of making renewables truly competitive. We’re pleased to be partnering with Statoil, which has outstanding expertise working in challenging offshore environments.“
Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions, said: “We are pleased to announce our decision to develop this significant offshore wind project together with E.ON. Statoil is an established player in offshore wind, leveraging our more than 40 years of experience from offshore oil and gas projects to create value. This investment is in line with our strategy to gradually complement our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.”
Beginning of this year E.ON’s core businesses are energy networks, customer solutions and renewables. The company has invested more than €10 billion in renewables in Europe and the United States since 2007. E.ON operates wind and solar farms with an aggregate capacity of 5.2 gigawatts and is the world’s second-largest offshore wind company. It is currently building Rampion, a 400-megawatt wind farm located off the coast of Brighton in the English Channel.
Statoil is an international energy company with operations in 37 countries. Building on more than 40 years of experience from oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf, Statoil is committed to accommodating the world’s energy needs in a responsible manner, applying technology and creating innovative business solutions. The company is headquartered in Stavanger, Norway with approximately 22,000 employees worldwide, and listed on the New York and Oslo stock exchanges.
