RWE Innogy installs first foundation of Thornton Bank 2 offshore wind farm

(ADPnews) - Jun 23, 2011 - RWE Innogy, the renewable energy subsidiary of German utility RWE (ETR:RWE), said on Wednesday it installed the first foundation of the wind park Thornton Bank 2 off the Belgian coast.

The jacket foundation produced near Antwerp has a height of 50 metres (164 feet) and weighs 550 tonnes. Via a crane, the foundation was fixed over the foundation piles installed earlier on the seabed.

RWE Innogy expects to install all 25 foundations of Thornton Bank's second construction phase this summer. The company said it is on schedule with the wind farm. The wiring for the wind turbines and for the offshore substation is planned for the next few months. The wind turbines and the offshore substation themselves will be installed at the start of 2012.

The second phase of the Thornton Bank project includes 24 turbines of 6 MW each over an area of some 10 square kilometres (3.9 square miles). The third construction phase will take place between 2012 and 2013. It will involve erecting another 24 wind turbines over 12 square kilometres.

When completed, the Thornton Bank wind park will have an installed capacity of 325 MW, which is enough to cover the annual electricity needs of 600,000 people. Eight European banks plus the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the German and Danish export credit agencies have provided some EUR 900 million (USD 1.28bn) of financing and risk-sharing for the project.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.425)

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