Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen (CDU) announced an increased investment in offshore wind power. Compared with the “Hamburger Abendblatt Röttgen said that he would use to invest in the development of offshore wind farms to renewable energy sources in Germany further. These guarantees are to be introduced, which can be requested by the offshore wind energy companies. These will be used for the entire range of wind energy: from planning and building the facilities up to current injection, the network expansion on the high seas and the connection to the electricity grid in the country. With the guarantees given the manufacturers, operators and the financing bank more planning security.

Röttgen plans to achieve by the end of 2011 fixed investment decisions for 10 wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. He also wants to be convened a conference in which the grid connection of the proposed wind farm off the German coast is discussed. The Minister also confirmed again the goal of wanting to produce over 10,000 megawatts by 2020 and by 2030 more than 25,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines. He hoped that the energy supply in Germany in 2050 to 100% let met by renewable energies. (Mh)

DailyGreen.de

The Federal Office for Nature Conservation (BfN) has expressed concern at the currently used solid foundations for offshore wind farms, so that their development currently falls further and further to a halt because no foundations are first approved for more wind farms. As the “World” reports, there are currently two variants that are used: for a steel foundations are used, which are secured by Rammschläge in the seabed, this is about 15,000 per windmill Rammschläge required. Investigations by the German pilot offshore wind farm “alpha ventus” have shown that these works are very loud and distribute the sensitive porpoises out of their habitats.

The second variant is made of concrete gravity foundations, which seal the seabed. The disadvantage: they harm the resident mussels and crabs. A letter from the BfN to the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), relied on by the “world”, it means that gravity foundations are not a good alternative and that “should be preferred to bore introduced foundations. The problem with this method is that there is no provider who performs this procedure. (Mh)

DailyGreen.de