New Wave Media

Remaining munitions from World War I, World War II and the Cold War have been removed from the site of the future Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea, allowing installations to begin securely in 2017 as planned.

 

The construction site, with an area of 39 square kilometers halfway between the island of Rügen and the Danish island of Bornholm, is now completely free of explosive ordnance, E.ON announced. 

 

The operation to clear the site of explosives took four months in all and started with an examination of the seabed. State-of-the-art cameras and sonars identified more than 400 suspicious objects in depths of up to 37 meters. The potentially unexploded ordnances were approached using underwater robots and individually examined. With 43 of those objects suspicions were confirmed that they were unexploded ordnances. These objects were not highly explosive and therefore ready for transport. They were recovered securely by specialist firms and handed over to the authorities in the port of Mukran in Sassnitz. The project was carried out without incidents and within schedule and budget.

 

The Arkona project is located 35 kilometers northeast of the island of Rügen. The wind farm will generate 385 megawatts (MW) of power which computes as a supply of renewable energy for 400,000 households. Compared with conventionally generated electricity, Arkona will save up to 1.2 million tons of CO2 per year. 60 6-MW wind turbines manufactured by Siemens will be installed. The plants will be built on monopile foundations in water depths from 23 up to 37 meters. Arkona is a joint venture of E.ON with the Norwegian energy company Statoil.