First Foundation for Nordsee One Offshore Wind Project Successfully Installed

The first steel foundation, or monopile, for the 332MW Nordsee One offshore wind project was successfully installed ahead of schedule on December 15, 2015. The wind farm, located in German territorial waters in the North Sea, will consist of 54 Senvion turbines and is owned by Northland Power Inc. (85%) and RWE Innogy GmbH (15%).

"Today's accomplishment is very exciting for everyone involved," said Pierre Lestienne and Tim Kittelhake, the joint managing directors of the project. "Achieving this milestone reflects months of effort and progress, and was a result of the hard work and cooperation of our team and project partners."

Nordsee One has contracted installation of the monopiles from GeoSea, an international specialist in offshore marine engineering with experience on more than 30 offshore wind projects. Installation will continue through the remainder of 2015 and into 2016. The monopiles were produced by Ambau, an experienced manufacturer of towers and foundation structures for the offshore and onshore wind energy sector. They are being installed in water depths ranging between 25 and 29 meters.

Nordsee One is located 40 kilometers north of Juist Island, in an area with shallow water and high wind speeds -- ideal conditions for an offshore wind farm. It is expected to be operational in 2017, and to generate over 1,300 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to meet the needs of 400,000 German households.

"Thanks to the skill and effort of our project team, we reached this important milestone ahead of time and on budget," said John Brace, CEO of Northland. "We will continue to work closely with all of our partners in the coming months, and look forward to providing additional updates as we move further towards completion of the project."

"We are very pleased to announce this important milestone for the project. Additionally, this is another step to strengthen our position under the TOP5 in the European offshore-market," explained Peter Terium, CEO of RWE AG. "After completing and commissioning our first wind farm off the German coast -- Nordsee Ost -- we are now combining our expertise and experience with Northland to build the next large offshore project in the German North Sea. This is consistent with the RWE Group strategy of developing strong and reliable partnerships."

Offshore wind development is a key feature of Germany's 'Energiewende' program, the official policy supporting renewable power generation with a stated goal for offshore wind capacity of 6,500 MW of installed capacity by 2020 and 15 GW by 2030.