In the view of Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, CEO at REpower Systems AG, offshore wind farms with an output of 1,500MW in Germany are realistic by the end of 2011.
During a podium discussion at the National Maritime Conference in Hamburg, 4 December 2006, he welcomed the resolution of the Federal Government to have eliminated a significant obstacle with the infrastructure law, i.e. the question of grid connection costs: in future, these costs will have to be borne not by the investors but – as is the case with traditional power stations – by the grid operators. Investments in offshore wind farms will therefore become up to 30% more economical. Vahrenholt explained: “With this, the Federal Government has made the use of offshore wind energy the focus of renewable energy development. In my view, by 2011, it will be possible to supply 1,500MW to the grid. To do this, five cables will have to be produced. We have adapted to this development with our 5M offshore turbine, 200 to 250 of which we plan to produce by the end of 2011. Shortly, we will also decide about a production site which meets these requirements.”
