Windanker is a 300MW offshore wind farm project being developed in the German waters of the Baltic Sea.
The project is Iberdrola’s third offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, and will further strengthen the company’s Baltic Hub in Germany which also includes the operational 350MW Wikinger offshore wind farm and under construction Baltic Eagle (476 MW) project.
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The Windanker wind farm project entails a total investment of €800m. It is scheduled to commence commercial operations in 2026.
The renewable electricity produced by Windanker will mostly be delivered to the German market via Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
The development of the project is aligned with Germany’s plans to develop 20,000MW of offshore wind capacity portfolio by 2030.
Location and site details
The Windanker Offshore Wind farm is located in the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Germany. The site is about 38km northeast of the Jasmund National Park on the Rügen island, Germany.
The closest point on the mainland is the southern area of the Greifswalder Bodden in Lubmin municipality.
Windanker will encompass an area of 17.9km2. The water depth in the region ranges between 41m and 45m.
Windanker Offshore Wind Farm project details
A report published in 2016 said that the Windanker offshore wind farm project will include 42 offshore wind turbine generators (OWTGs) along with an offshore transformer platform and ancillary subsea infrastructure.
The fully automated wind turbines will have a capacity of 6MW each.
However, Iberdrola now plans to maximise the efficiency of Windanker by installing new generation turbines with a unit capacity of around 15MW.
The turbines will have a built-in condition monitoring system and will be connected to Iberdrola’s operations on the mainland via a communication network. This will enable remote monitoring and control of the turbines.
The turbines will also have built-in lightning protection systems, designed in accordance with the IEC standard of lightning protection requirements.
The foundation concept of wind turbine generators is finalised on the basis of the type of wind turbine, sea bed conditions, the water depths and production requirements.
Windanker project is expected to use monopile foundations, which include primarily a closed steel pipe pile-driven into the seabed.
The foundations will have crater protection with rockfill. Similarly, all the steel components of the OWTGs and the foundations will be appropriately coated to prevent corrosion.
The transformer platform with a basic area of 25m/50m, is planned as an unmanned platform. The platform will feature a topside and a foundation structure.
The topside will house rising cables, cable connections, transformers, switchgears and control systems among others, while the foundation will have a jacket structure.
The adjacent offshore wind foundation of Wikinger Wind Farm will be connected to the onshore network node point through a three-phase 220kV asynchronous motor.
Wind farm cabling will be installed as a three-phase, medium-voltage network with anticipated 33kV voltage.
It will use three-core, XLPE-insulated copper cables with cross sectional area between 120mm2 and 800mm2. The cables can also be secured with rockfill, if required.
Contractors involved
A joint venture of HSM Offshore Energy, Smulders, and Iv-Offshore & Energy won the contract to develop an offshore substation for the Ostwind 3 Project. Ostwind 3 grid connection will connect the Windanker Offshore Wind Farm to Rügen island.
Iberdrola contracted Danish consulting engineering group Ramboll for the foundation design for the 300MW wind farm.
Windanker Power Purchase Agreements
In March 2023, Iberdrola signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with German automotive brand Mercedes-Benz under which Mercedes will buy 140MW of power from the Windanker project.
In the same month, Iberdrola and Amazon announced a collaboration, and signed PPAs for projects in the US, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The agreements will help Amazon reach its goal to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its 2030 commitment.
As agreed, Iberdrola’s Baltic Eagle Offshore Wind Farm and Windanker Offshore Wind Farm will deliver 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean power per year to Amazon.
