German Wind Farm Fiasco

German offshore wind farm has nothing to connect to

Another story of epic failure from the renewables industry, this time from the normally meticulous Germans who have built a large wind farm 20 miles off the coast of Heligoland, in the North Sea.

Once finished the wind farm will start generating electricity immediately, er no, seems there is no infrastructure in place to connect the wind farm to Germany’s electrical grid, and there will not be for at least 12 months.

It gets better soon the area will be full of diesel fumes as fossil fuel powered generators will be used to keep the turbines, turning:

The construction of offshore wind parks in the North Sea has hit a snag with a vital link to the onshore power grid hopelessly behind schedule. The delays have some reconsidering the ability of wind power to propel Germany into the post-nuclear era.

The generation of electricity from wind is usually a completely odorless affair. After all, the avoidance of emissions is one of the unique charms of this particular energy source.

But when work is completed on the Nordsee Ost wind farm, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the island of Heligoland in the North Sea, the sea air will be filled with a strong smell of fumes: diesel fumes.

The reason is as simple as it is surprising. The wind farm operator, German utility RWE, has to keep the sensitive equipment — the drives, hubs and rotor blades — in constant motion, and for now that requires diesel-powered generators. Because although the wind farm will soon be ready to generate electricity, it won’t be able to start doing so because of a lack of infrastructure to transport the electricity to the mainland and feed it into the grid. The necessary connections and cabling won’t be ready on time and the delay could last up to a year.

In other words, before Germany can launch itself into the renewable energy era Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen so frequently hails, the country must first burn massive amounts of fossil fuels out in the middle of the North Sea — a paradox as the country embarks on its energy revolution.

This latest failure of renewables will put Germany under pressure as the shutdown of its nuclear power stations draws ever closer, the German solar industry is already finished, the question remains to be answered as to how Germany will fill the generating gap left by the loss of nuclear generating capacity.