Amrumbank West
Amrumbank West in a German offshore wind farm in the North Sea owned by RWE. It is located about 35 km northwest of the island of Heligoland and around 18 km south-west of the Amrum Bank sandbank. It consists of 80 turbines in waters 19–24 m deep.[1]
| Amrumbank West | |
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| Country |
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| Location | North Sea, ~35 km (22 mi) north of Helgoland |
| Coordinates | 54°31′22″N 7°42′17″E |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date |
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| Owner(s) | |
| Wind farm | |
| Type | |
| Rotor diameter |
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| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 80 × 3.6 MW |
| Make and model | Siemens Gamesa SWT-3.6-120 (80) |
| Nameplate capacity |
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Construction
Construction cost was around €1 billion.[2] The project was delayed 15 months by the lack of power lines.[3] The 80 wind turbines are Siemens SWT-3.6–120 with 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. The wind farm was commissioned at the end of 2015.
Seabed protection
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]
References
- Müller, W. W.; Saathoff, F. (2015). "Geosynthetics in geoenvironmental engineering". Science and Technology of Advanced Materials. 16 (3): 034605. Bibcode:2015STAdM..16c4605M. doi:10.1088/1468-6996/16/3/034605. PMC 5099829. PMID 27877792.
- Factsheet Amrumbank West Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 1,2 MB). Eon, retrieved 21 April 2012.
- German wind energy plans in the doldrums. Thenational.ae (6 March 2012). Retrieved on 2015-05-10.
- Siemens sichert sich Auftrag für Offshore-Windkraftwerk in Deutschland. Siemens, 15 December 2011, retrieved 23 December 2011.
