Amrumbank West

Amrumbank West
Location of Amrumbank West off the coast of Germany on the North Sea
Country Germany
Location North Sea, ~35 km (22 mi) north of Helgoland
Coordinates 54°30′N 7°48′E / 54.500°N 7.800°E / 54.500; 7.800Coordinates: 54°30′N 7°48′E / 54.500°N 7.800°E / 54.500; 7.800
Status Under construction
Owner(s) E.ON

Amrumbank West in a German offshore wind farm under construction in the North Sea. It is owned by E.ON. It is located about 35 km northwest of the island of Heligoland and around 18 km south-west of the Amrum Bank sandbank. As of 2015 it consisted of 80 turbines resting at 19–24 m depth.[1]

Construction

The cost is around 1 billion euros.[2] The project was delayed 15 months by the lack of power lines.[3] The 80 wind turbines are type Siemens SWT-3.6–120 which have a rated power of 3.6 MW and a rotor diameter of 120 meters.[4] Offshore construction began in 2013, and the first turbine was installed in February 2015. Until the wind farm is operational, diesel is burnt in generators to maintain the rotors. Two 1250 kW diesel generators were announced as delivered in April 2014.[5] The full commissioning of the wind farm is planned for autumn 2015.[6]

Seabed protection

Installation of turbine piles at Amrumbank West through the erosion protection layers.[1]

The seabed surface at the construction site mainly consists of sand. It was initially reinforced by a 2.4-m-thick layer of large stones. However, this hindered installation of the turbine piles, which should be driven through the protection layer deep into the seabed. Therefore, stones were replaced by two layers of geotextile containers, i.e., sandbags made of a special damage-resistant nonwoven geotextile. Empty bags had a size of 1.45 × 2.38 m and could accommodate 1 m3 of sand; they were filled on the Rømø island up to 80 vol% and weighed 1400 kg each. The seabed protection withstood the St. Jude storm in October 2013 and Cyclone Xaver in December 2013. Starting from December 2013, turbine piles 6 m in diameter were driven through the erosion protection layers.[1]

Amrumbank West's location in the wind farms of the German Bight

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Müller, W. W.; Saathoff, F. (2015). "Geosynthetics in geoenvironmental engineering". Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 16 (3): 034605. doi:10.1088/1468-6996/16/3/034605.
  2. ↑ Factsheet Amrumbank West (PDF; 1,2 MB). Eon, retrieved 21 April 2012.
  3. ↑ German wind energy plans in the doldrums. Thenational.ae (6 March 2012). Retrieved on 2015-05-10.
  4. ↑ Siemens sichert sich Auftrag für Offshore-Windkraftwerk in Deutschland. Siemens, 15 December 2011, retrieved 23 December 2011.
  5. ↑ DBR Delivers Power Pack for Amrumbank West. Offshorewind.biz (8 April 2014). Retrieved on 2015-05-10.
  6. ↑ "Amrumbank West: Erste Siemens-Turbine steht im E.ON-Offshore-Windpark". IWR, 11 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.


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