NGlobal Magazin 01-2010

Niedersachsen Global www.nglobal.de 30 Energy More Information www.enercon.de www.bard-offshore.de www.forwind.de www.dewi.de www.alpha-ventus.de cently construction of the prototype E-Ship 1 started at the Emden shipyards: It will start shipping wind tur- bines in summer 2010. Offshore wind energy is the one field Enercon has not gone into. This is a sector the company leaves to the Bard Group—whose story is a similar from-rags-to-riches tale. Everything from one Source The Emden-based company is currently building a wind park in the German North Sea, about 90 kilome- tres northwest of the island of Borkum. The turbines will reach 40 metres deep into the sea, a depth into which no other manufacturer has ventured so far. By the end of this year at least 50 turbines with a capaci- ty of five MW each are scheduled to provide electricity for 400,000 households. It is not just that ‘Bard Off- shore 1’ will be the first commercial wind park in the German North Sea. It is also being built by a company that eight years ago did not even exist. Dr. Arngolt Bekker, a former Russian functionary, founded Bard with the idea of buying the wind power plants and their foundations and to then have them installed. However, when the solutions he envisaged were not available on the market, Bekker decided to make the offshore turbines himself. This not be- ing enough, the businessman also took in hand to organize the building of the complicated and expen- sive foundations for the enormous turbines. Bard also wanted to be independent from the floating cranes of which only a few are available. These were necessary to erect the turbines, and hiring cost the company up to one million euros a day. So why not build a ship of one’s own? This is what Bard did. The company’s own floating ship will be able to sink its hydraulic legs up to 45 metres onto the sea- bed and will then have a firm stand, allowing con- struction work even at wind speed 7. Bard also oper- ates a transformer platform weighing 7,000 tons. The platform will gather the electricity produced by the 50 turbines and, to allow transport via sea cables to- wards the mainland, it will transform the current to a higher voltage. A 24-hour maintenance team on the platform will monitor operations of the wind park. Bard’s everything-from-one-source concept is part of a very ambitious plan. In the future Bard wants to build one offshore wind park every year: ‘Bard Offshore 1’ will, it is hoped, be succeeded by eight more installa- tions. In addition, the company has recently received permission for three wind parks in the Dutch North Sea—which Bard is, likewise, going to plan, erect and operate. With an installed capacity of 3,000 MW, the wind parks planned for the German North Sea alone could cover some two percent of the current electricity needs and replace three to four medium-size coal- fired power plants. This in turn would mean a cut in CO2 emissions of ten million tons—a big step in the trend towards alternative energies. The control centre in Emden. From here the construction of ‘Bard Offshore 1’—the first commercial off- shore windpark—is also being monitored. The Wind Lift I is one of the key components of Bard’s master plan. It allows the intallation of the wind turbines even at high wind speed. Photo: Bard Photo: Bard ›