Germany’s RWE Operationalises 342 MW Kaskasi Offshore Wind Farm

Global renewable energy company RWE has announced that it has commenced the Kaskasi wind farm located 35 kilometres north of Heligoland Island, Germany. The official statement held that it was done in the presence of Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. With an installed capacity of 342 MW, the Kaskasi wind facility can supply over 400,000 households with green electricity.

RWE mentioned that the 38 wind turbines of Kaskasi were commissioned over four months. Since the end of 2022, all turbines have been feeding green electricity into the grid. After all required tests were successfully completed, the wind farm is now commencing regular operation.

RWE mentioned that the approval procedure for the wind farm started in spring 2019 and construction was greenlighted by the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie) at the end of 2020. The total offshore construction time was nine months, the investment costs for Kaskasi amounted to around EUR 800 million. More than 100 people at RWE alone worked on implementing this large project – hand in hand with the staff from over 70 suppliers.

Minister Robert Habeck said that Germany has increased the expansion targets in the German Offshore Wind Energy Act to at least 30 GW by 2030. “Kaskasi was the only new offshore wind farm completed off the German coast last year. Its inauguration is to mark a turning point, we now want to drive the expansion of offshore wind energy forward in a targeted and coordinated manner,” he said.

Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG, commented, “Our Kaskasi offshore wind farm was the only that was constructed and connected to the grid in Germany last year. Many more must follow over the coming years for Germany to reach its climate targets.” He said that the RWE cluster will have a total capacity of up to 1.6 GW and the RE company will also take part in the large German offshore auctions in summer this year.”

World’s First Recyclable Rotor Blades Installed

The company mentioned that three turbines at the Kaskasi wind farm are equipped with the first rotor blades that can be recycled at the end of their life cycle. Thanks to a new type of resin with a special chemical structure, the materials used for producing the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade can now be separated again for the first time. This process ensures that the properties of the individual materials remain intact so that they can be reused. The recyclable rotor blades are also installed at the Sofia wind farm, which is currently being constructed by RWE off the UK northeast coast.