The He Dreiht offshore wind project is being developed by EnBW within Cluster 7 in the German Exclusive Economic Zone in the North Sea.
The company secured the rights for the development of the 960MW project in a wind energy auction in 2017.
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The He Dreiht offshore wind farm is owned by EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg, which holds a 50.1% stake and operates the project, and the remaining 49.9% interest is held by a consortium comprising Allianz Capital Partners, AIP Management and Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM).
The total investment in the project amounts to approxiamtely €2.4bn ($2.6bn). The final investment decision was taken in March 2023.
Construction activities started in May 2024, with the installation of all 64 foundations completed in August 2024. Turbine installation commenced in April 2025, and first power was produced and exported to the grid in November 2025.
EnBW intends to complete construction and bring all wind turbines into operation by the summer of 2026.
Once fully commissioned, EnBW He Dreiht will have the capacity to generate electricity equivalent to the annual consumption of approximately 1.1 million households.
Location
The offshore wind project is being developed at water depths between 37.7m and 40.6m, roughly 90km north of Borkum Island and 110km west of Helgoland Island.
It is in close proximity to other EnBW wind farms such as Hohe See and Albatros.
He Dreiht wind project details
The He Dreiht wind farm project is spread over 63km². It features 64 Vestas V236-15MW offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 15MW each.
The turbines will have a blade length of 115.5m (378.9ft), a rotor diameter of 236m, a swept area of 43,742m² (470,835ft²) and a maximum hub height of 142m.
Monopiles with a length of 70m, a diameter of 9.2m and weighing around 1,350t each are installed to support the wind turbines.
Transition pieces bind the monopiles and turbines together. Each transition piece measures 30m in height and 8.5m in diameter.
Grid connection
The power produced from the wind farm will be exported through the 230km-long BorWin5 high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore grid connection system, which is being developed by European electricity transmission system operator TenneT.
The wind turbines will be directly linked to the offshore HVDC converter platform, BorWin epsilon, through 66kV three-phase power cables.
The three-phase current produced from the project will be converted into direct current at the offshore converter platform and transported to the landfall site in Hilgenriedersiel through a 110km-long submarine cable, as part of the grid connection.
The onshore section will comprise a 120km-long land cable, which will transmit the electricity to the future Garrel/East converter station near Cloppenburg, Germany.
Power purchase agreements
EnBW will supply 85MW of power to Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, for 15 years, according to a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed in December 2021. The agreement will enable Fraport to save 80,000t of CO₂ emissions a year.
Evonik signed a 15-year PPA with EnBW for 100MW of electricity from the wind farm in November 2022.
Under a PPA signed in August 2023, Deutsche Bahn will purchase around 20MW of the project’s installed capacity for 15 years.
SHS – Stahl Holding Saar signed a 15-year PPA with EnBW to supply 50MW of electricity from the project.
DHL Group will procure around 20MW per year of electricity from the wind farm for a period of ten years under a PPA signed in June 2025.
EnBW also signed a 15-year PPA with Google to supply 100MW of electricity from the project in February 2026.
Financing
In March 2023, the European Investment Bank announced a €600m loan to support the construction of the He Dreiht wind farm.
A German banking consortium consisting of LBBW, KfW IPEX-Bank and Commerzbank, together with EIFO of Denmark, is backing the project with a syndicated loan of €500m announced in June 2023.
Construction details
More than 60 vessels are engaged in delivering the wind farm. The initial foundations were installed in the seabed using the Thialf, one of the largest floating cranes in operation worldwide. Prior to installation, the monopiles and transition pieces were loaded onto floating platforms at Eemshaven in the Netherlands and transported to the site by tugboats.
Turbine installation is being carried out with the O-class vessel Wind Orca, which is fitted with a new crane.
The T-NMS-10000 noise mitigation system, developed by Heerema in collaboration with IQIP, has been deployed at the wind farm to enable noise reduction. Testing and operational deployment demonstrated that T-NMS-10000 can reduce underwater noise by up to 24 decibels when used alongside a double big bubble curtain and IQIP’s PULSE system.
Contractors involved
Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer Vestas received a conditional offer from EnBW to supply 64 V236 wind turbines for the project in June 2022. This was followed by a firm order in September 2023.
Vestas contracted Cadeler, an offshore wind turbine installation and maintenance service provider, to provide transportation and installation services for the project’s wind turbines.
A joint venture of Sif Group and Smulders Group manufactured 64 transition pieces for the wind farm, while Steelwind Nordenham built and delivered steel monopile foundations for the project.
Heerema Marine Contractors was contracted for the transportation and installation of 64 monopiles and transition pieces.
EnBW placed an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract with Norwegian company Seaway 7 for inner-array grid cables.
TenneT subcontracted a consortium of Siemens Energy and Dragados Offshore for the construction and installation of the offshore converter platform in the North Sea, as well as the onshore converter stations, in August 2020.
North Star, an offshore service vessel operator, won a contract from EnBW to provide a new hybrid-electric service operations vessel under a charter of at least ten years, supporting the He Dreiht offshore wind farm.
Unexploded ordnance consultancy NjordIC, Jörss Blunck Ordemann, a structural design consultancy, and Bureau Veritas Industry Services, a subsidiary of testing, inspection and certification services provider Bureau Veritas, are some of the other contractors involved in the project.
Additional contractors include SeaRenergy Offshore Holding, a marine services provider; JDR, a subsea cable supplier and servicer; ITW Performance Polymers, a high-performance adhesives supplier; and Moeller & Poeller Engineering, a consulting and engineering services company.
