The Arkona offshore wind farm of E.ON and Equinor (formerly Statoil), the largest wind farm to date in the German Baltic Sea, was officially inaugurated on 16 April.

The wind farm, with an installed capacity of 385 MW, equipped with 60 SWT-6.0-154 direct drive wind turbines of the 6 MW class, is located 35 km northeast of the island of Rügen. It represents an investment volume of about €1.2 billion.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) carried out construction works, including the installation and commissioning of the 60 wind turbines, in a record time of only five months, between June and October 2018, and ahead of schedule. 

The turbines were installed within the 39 km2 wind park area on monopile foundations at water depths of between 23 and 37 m. SGRE applied its proven 24/ONE concept, in which a turbine is installed within 24 hours. The aim is to reduce installation times through efficient project management, delivering benefits to the owner/operator. In just over three months, the offshore turbines were installed from an installation ship provided by the operator. Only two days after completion of the installation work, all the wind turbines were fully operational at sea. As a result, the power plant was completed much earlier than planned.