World's 2nd largest offshore wind farm Gwynt y Môr officially inaugurated

Today the Gwynt y Môr wind farm, located eight miles offshore in Liverpool Bay, will be officially inaugurated by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales. With an installed capacity of 576 megawatts (MW) Gwynt y Môr is the world's 2nd largest offshore wind farm.

In total, 160 wind turbines will produce enough power to supply some 400,000 residential households with renewable electricity per year. The inauguration of the more than £2billion wind farm is a significant achievement for RWE (60 percent) and its partners in Gwynt y Môr, Stadtwerke München (30 percent) and Siemens (10 percent).

Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, said: „Gwynt y Môr is a huge achievement and will continue to bring a number of benefits to the North Wales region. Local companies have been among those to benefit during construction and the site will bring high quality employment and opportunities for years to come. With young people receiving training as part of the wind turbine apprenticeship scheme at Grwp Llandrillo Menai and the courses offered at the college's Energy Centre in Llangefni, North Wales is the go-to place for those looking for a workforce skilled in the field of energy.“

RWE AG's Chief Executive Officer, Peter Terium, led the celebrations today at Gwynt y Môr's Operations & Maintenance base, newly built at the Port of Mostyn.
Peter Terium said: „With today's inauguration we are now definitely playing in the Offshore Wind Champions League! Thanks to our German wind park Nordsee Ost, inaugurated only 3 weeks ago and now Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm will become the third largest player in the European offshore market. The expansion of renewable energy is one of our main growth areas. We currently expect to invest over 1 billion Euro up to 2017 in growing renewables, with wind power at the forefront of that investment.“ Hans Bünting, CEO of RWE Innogy, adds: „At the end of this year 40 percent of our power generation from renewables will already come from offshore power production. Due to this increase in offshore capacity our operating result will see double-digit growth.ˮ

Dr. Florian Bieberbach, SWM's Chief Executive Officer: „Gwynt y Môr marks the second offshore wind park in which we are participating that has been successfully completed. Offshore wind is still a very young technology and entails a certain amount of imponderables. I am all the more pleased that we have now been able to successfully conclude the construction of Gwynt y Môr. First and foremost, I would like to thank our partners RWE and Siemens, and naturally all the others who played a role in realizing the park. Gwynt y Môr is a further significant building block in our Renewable Energies Expansion Campaign: by the year 2025, we want to generate sufficient green electricity to cover Munich's entire consumption. This will put Munich on the map as the first city of over a million inhabitants to have achieved this goal!“

„Siemens has played a major role in Gwynt y Môr. Physically, by supplying both turbines and sub-stations and also by providing financing and a 12-year Service and Warranty contract,“ Michael Hannibal, CEO Offshore and Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division, said. „It has been an excellent team effort. Gwynt y Môr will benefit the UK economy by creating green jobs and growth as well as providing secure, sustainable and low-carbon energy for around 400,000 homes in Wales.“

Impressing dimensions

The wind farm extends over an area of some 80 square kilometres. The 160 Siemens turbines with a capacity of 3.6 MW each and the 160 steel monopile foundations, some weighing up to 700 tonnes, were installed by means of installation vessels at water depths of up to 28 meters. Each turbine rises 150 meters above the mean sea level. In addition RWE and its contractors installed two massive offshore substations each weighing 1,300 tonnes and 134 kilometers of onshore cable installed.

Gwynt y Môr has created significant opportunity for Wales' economy, worth over £90million to Welsh firms during construction, and will continue to do so throughout its operational life.

For further information on Division Wind Power and Renewables, please see: www.siemens.com/wind

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world's largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading supplier of combined cycle turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2014, which ended on September 30, 2014, Siemens generated revenue from continuing operations of €71.9 billion and net income of €5.5 billion. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 343,000 employees worldwide on a continuing basis. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com

More about RWE's offshore activities
In Mai, RWE has inaugurated the German wind farm Nordsee Ost which has an installed capacity of 295 MW and is located 35 kilometres (km) north of Heligoland. This wind farm has been built by RWE.
In addition RWE Innogy (15% share) and their partner Northland Power (85% share) are currently developing the wind farms Nordsee One, 2 and 3 in the German North Sea. These wind power plants with a total installed capacity of around 1,000 megawatts are the largest offshore project planned off the German coast. They are to be built 40 kilometres north of the North Sea island of Juist, covering an area of about 150 km2. According to current planning, construction of the offshore components for the first Nordsee One subproject is due to start in 2016. Commercial operation is scheduled to begin at the end of 2017. In February, RWE agreed on a 50/50 partnership with Statkraft in the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm project. This development project involves a 900-megawatt wind farm off the British coast. The size is equivalent to a large coal-fired power plant. The investment volume will amount to approx. €5 billion. RWE intend to take the investment decision in 2017 and to start construction the same year. In addition RWE is involved in the development of the British Galloper offshore project. The size of this wind farm located 30km off the Suffolk Coast of England would be up to 340 megawatts. www.rweinnogy.com

More about SWM's renewable energies activities
Stadtwerke München (SWM), Munich's municipal utilities company, is one of the largest energy and infrastructure companies in Germany. SWM is assuming a pioneering role at the vanguard of climate and environmental protection efforts: By 2025 SWM is aiming to generate as much green energy to supply the entire municipality. Munich will then become the first city with a population of more than a million to achieve this target. Wind power is playing an increasingly important role in SWM's strategy.
Once its other ongoing projects have been realized and have come on stream, SWM will have a green energy generation capacity of over 3.5 billion kWh from its own plants. This is already equivalent to 50 percent of Munich's power consumption. www.swm.de 

Reference Number: PR2015060261WPEN

Contact
Ms. Eva-Maria Baumann
Wind Power and Renewables Division
Siemens AG

Freyeslebenstr. 1

91058 Erlangen

Germany

Tel: +49 (9131) 18-3700

eva-maria.baumann​@siemens.com

Ms. Barbara Woydtke
RWE Innogy

Tel: +49 (201) 12-14014

barbara.woydtke​@rwe.com

Ms. Bettina Hess
Stadtwerke München

Tel: +49 (89) 23 61 50 42

hess.bettina​@swm.de