Thorntonbank offshore wind farm

Thorntonbank wind farm
	Construction phase 1, wind turbines D1 to D6
	location
	Belgium
Coordinates	51 ° 32 '24 " N , 2 ° 56' 24" E Coordinates: 51 ° 32 '24 " N , 2 ° 56' 24" E
country	Belgium
Waters	North Sea (approx. 30 km off the Belgian coast)
	Data
Type	Offshore wind farm
Primary energy	Wind energy
power	215 MW electrical (phase 1 + 2, 2012); 325 MW (final expansion, 2013)
owner	C-Power
Start of operations	2008 (phase 1), ; 2013 (complete wind farm)
founding	6 × heavyweight foundation 48 × jacket (foundation) Design: OWEC Tower AS
turbine	6 × REpower 5M (phase 1, 2009); 30 × REpower 6M (phase 2, 2012) ; 18 × REpower 6M (phase 3, 2013)
Website	www.c-power.be

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

operator

The developer and operator of the wind farm is the Belgian company C-Power NV (headquarters: Zwijndrecht ), in which, in addition to Belgian investors and the coastal construction company DEME , the energy group RWE (via the subsidiary RWE Innogy , largest shareholder with 26.7%), and Electricité de France (through the subsidiary EDF energies nouvelles ).

history

The park was built in three stages and put into operation:
Phase 1 with six wind turbines of the type REpower 5M is since 2008 on the network. After operating experience was gained with phase 1, two further phases followed with 30 and 18 turbines of the more powerful REpower 6M type , which were installed in 2012 and 2013 with the help of the new installation vessel "Neptune" (the last in July 2013).

Phase 2 started with the installation of the concrete foundations in summer 2011 and ended in summer 2012.

The third construction phase took place in 2012 and 2013 (as planned in 2011).

technology

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

The wind farm is divided into two fields A and B ; a gas pipeline and a telecommunications submarine cable run between them . Both fields each have a mast for measuring the wind speed . The electricity produced is conducted to the transformer platform via medium-voltage cables and then conducted on land via two 40 km long 150-kV submarine cables to the Slijkens transformer station near Bredene .

Costs, financial matters

According to RWE, a total of around 1.3 billion euros was invested (RWE Innogy is the largest private shareholder in the wind farm with 26.7%). A total of eight European banks, the German and Danish export credit agencies and the European Investment Bank provided around 900 million euros (= around 70%) in financing and risk sharing for the realization of the wind farm . The European Commission funded the project as part of the European Energy Program for Recovery (EEPR) with 10 million euros.