Vattenfall has officially begun operations of its DanTysk offshore wind farm. Located 70 kilometers west of Sylt Island, the project is the first infrastructure project jointly implemented by Vattenfall and SWM. DanTysk is comprised of 80 Siemens wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 288 MW.

The event was celebrated by several key energy players in Europe including: German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel; Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Mikael Damberg; Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz and Torsten Albig; Prime Minister of the State of Schleswig-Holstein; Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Vattenfall; and Dr Florian Bieberbach, CEO of SWM.

Sigmar Gabriel, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs said during the event, “Last year we created the necessary investment security with EEC 2014, which led to a real breakthrough in the development of offshore wind power. By 2030 there should be 15 gigawatts of installed capacity, amounting to a capital investment of several billion Euros in wind farms and infrastructure, with high added value for Germany. Together with the DanTysk wind farm, by the end of this year Germany will generate green power from more than 3,000 megawatts of installed offshore capacity. That is a real boost for the energy transition.”

Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Vattenfall said of the project, “Offshore wind has become an ever more important energy source for our company. Vattenfall is today the second largest operator of offshore wind in the world. Together, we are on our way to transform the energy system. As part of this ambition, DanTysk is an important milestone: for Germany, for Europe – and definitely for us at Vattenfall.”

The two companies are continuing their partnership. In August 2014 they were given the green light for the construction of the Sanbank offshore wind farm, also located in the German North Sea. The project will have the capacity of 288 MW, or the capability of powering more than 400,000 homes per year. The project begins construction this summer.

“For us and our stakeholder, the City of Munich, today is a special day. We have already implemented many projects with renewable energy, and in each of these we have played a pioneering role,” said Dr Florian Bieberbach, CEO of SWM. “With today’s official commissioning we add the first finalized offshore wind farm to our portfolio. In terms of capital investment as well as installed capacity, DanTysk is our largest completed renewable energy project to date. Thanks to excellent cooperation with Vattenfall and Siemens, our expansion campaign for renewable energy is taking a big step forward – from May our renewable assets, including SWM’s DanTysk share, will be feeding enough green power into the grid to meet the needs of all private households, underground, tram and electric vehicles in Munich.”