Sandbank offshore wind farm commissioned

“We delivered Sandbank three and a half months prior to schedule and well within budget. This is a great success and a proof point that we clearly delivered on our promises made in August 2014. Furthermore it demonstrates our ability for continuous improvement even whilst constructing our projects. A big thank you to all our people in Vattenfall and to our suppliers. It has been a team effort and is a joint success”, says Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfall Wind.

After the DanTysk offshore wind power plant (in operation since 2015), Sandbank is the second infrastructure project that Vattenfall and Stadtwerke München (SWM) have now realized together. This will give them a combined portfolio of 576 megawatt (MW) of installed capacity, making Vattenfall and SWM some of the largest producers of green electricity in the German Bight.

The first Sandbank wind turbine was installed end of July 2016. The park will generate in continuous operation an annual amount of electricity which corresponds to the consumption of 400,000 German households. Compared to electricity produced from conventional sources in Germany, Sandbank produces electricity with 700,000 tonnes less CO2 emissions annually.        

Various factors have accelerated the installation of the Sandbank wind turbines. All involved companies entered the installation phase in a well and intensely prepared manner which resulted in a very good co-operation. The installation vessel performed well with the effect that, under good weather conditions, the team was able to install one wind turbine per day.

The Sandbank project
The investment costs for the Sandbank offshore wind farm are around EUR 1.2 billion. Vattenfall holds a 51% stake in Sandbank Offshore GmbH, which was set up to implement the project, while Stadtwerke München (SWM) holds a 49% stake. A total of 72 Siemens wind turbines in the 4-megawatt (MW) class were installed, providing a total capacity of 288 MW. Sandbank is the second joint offshore wind project for Vattenfall and SWM already. Together with the “sister-project” DanTysk (in full operation since early 2015) both wind power plants provide a combined portfolio of 576 MW of installed generation capacity.

For further information, please contact:
Peter Stedt, Press Officer Vattenfall. +46 70 597 73 38
Vattenfall’s Press Office, telephone: +46 8 739 5010.

Vattenfall is a Swedish, state owned, energy company with more than 20,000 employees with operations in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, UK and Finland. Vattenfall supports the transition to a renewable energy system and has the objective to become leading in sustainable energy production and thereby secure a reliable and cost effective energy supply.