Thorntonbank Wind Farm

F2

325 MW ( final, 2013)

30 × REpower 6M (Phase 2, 2012) 18 × REpower 6M (Phase 3, 2013)

The wind farm Thorntonbank is an offshore wind farm in the southern North Sea on the sandbank Thornton about 30 km off the coast of West Flanders / Belgium between Ostend and Zeebrugge. With a capacity of approximately 325 MW of wind farm Thorntonbank is (as of mid 2013), one of the largest of its kind in continental Europe.

Operator

Developer and operator of wind farms is the Belgian company C-Power NV ( Head Office: Zwijndrecht ), where in addition to Belgian investors and the coast construction company DEME also the energy companies RWE ( through its subsidiary RWE Innogy, the largest shareholder with 26.7 %) and Electricité de France ( EDF energies nouvelles about the daughter ) are involved.

History

The park was built in three sections and put into operation: Phase 1 with six wind turbines of the REpower 5M since 2008 on the net. After 1 operating experience gained with phase, followed by two more phases with 30 or 18 plants of the stronger REpower 6M, which were erected in 2012 and 2013 using the new installer ship " Neptune " (the last in July 2013).

Phase 2 began in the summer of 2011 with the installation of concrete foundations and completed in the summer of 2012.

The third phase took place in the years 2012 and 2013, instead of ( as planned as early as 2011 ).

Technology

The park consists of 54 wind turbines of the type 5M and 6M. The plants have a rotor diameter of 126 m and an electrical output of 5 MW and 6 MW. The gondolas with the generators (also called power house ) are at 94 m height above the sea level. The water at this point, depending on the tide a depth of up to 27.5 m.

The wind farm is divided into two fields A and B; between them run a gas pipeline and a telecommunications submarine cable. Both fields have a mast to measure wind speed, respectively. The electricity produced is passed over medium voltage cables to the transformer platform and then passed through two 40 km long 150 kV submarine cables for substation Slijkens at Bredene on land.

Costs, Financial

Overall, according to RWE around 1.3 billion euros have been invested (RWE Innogy is 26.7 % the largest private shareholder in the wind farm ). Presented for the realization of the wind farm a total of eight European banks, the German and Danish Export Credit Agency and the European Investment Bank about 900 million euros ( about 70 %) of financing and risk-sharing ready.

Information board with technical details

T = Thorntonbank

REpower 5M wind farm Thorntonbank