Borkum Riffgrund 3

Borkum Riffgrund 3 Offshore Wind Farm Profile

Location: The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm is situated in the German North Sea, approximately 72 km off the coast of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located near Ørsted's existing offshore wind farms, Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2, and Gode Wind 1 and 2.
Status: Currently under construction, with the first wind turbine installed in June 2024. The project is expected to be commissioned in 2025.

Installed Capacity: 913 MW, making it the largest offshore wind farm in Germany once operational.
Number of Turbines: The wind farm will feature 83 Siemens Gamesa SG 11.0-200 DD offshore wind turbines.
Turbine Capacity: Each turbine has a nominal output of 11 MW and features 97m-long blades with a swept area of 31,400m² (337,986ft²).

Installation Vessels: The installation of the wind turbines is being carried out by the installation vessels ‘Seaway Ventus’ from Seaway 7 and ‘Wind Osprey’ from Cadeler.
Monopile Foundations: Jan De Nul Group is responsible for transporting and installing the monopile foundations, each with a length of up to 100m, a diameter of 10m, and a weight of 1,200 tonnes.

Connection Concept: Borkum Riffgrund 3 is the first offshore wind farm built by Ørsted in Germany without an offshore substation (OSS). The wind turbines are directly connected via 66 kV connection cables to the DolWin epsilon offshore converter platform operated by TenneT.
Transmission System: The power is transmitted as three-phase alternating current (AC) to the DolWin epsilon platform, where it is converted into direct current (DC) and transported over 100 km through a submarine cable to the landing point in Hamswehrum. A 30 km-long land cable then connects to the converter station in Emden, where the electricity is converted back into three-phase AC before being fed into the extra-high-voltage grid.

Financing Package: Led by Ørsted, with Glennmont co-arranging the package. Debt facilities are provided by eight banks, including Natwest, ING, Bank of China, Santander, Helaba, ABN AMRO, SEB, and Siemens Bank.

Environmental Impact: The project is expected to generate enough power for approximately one million German homes and avoid 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Long-term corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) have been signed with various companies, including Amazon (350 MW), BASF (186 MW), Covestro (100 MW), Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft/REWE Group (100 MW), and Google (50 MW). These agreements range from 10 to 25 years and provide long-term price security for both Ørsted and the customers.

Merchant Basis: Borkum Riffgrund 3 was the first offshore wind project in the world to be awarded on a merchant basis, without subsidies. It is also the first offshore wind farm in Germany to exceed the 900 MW capacity mark.

Operation and Maintenance: Once operational, the wind farm will be managed from Norden-Norddeich and Emden in East Frisia, Germany, and Eemshaven, Netherlands, similar to Ørsted's current offshore wind farms.