On August 20, the German Federal Environment Minister, Peter Altmaier, visited the production site of AREVA Wind in Bremerhaven, Germany, to find out more about AREVA’s proven offshore technology. P. Altmaier flew in a helicopter over the “alpha ventus” offshore wind park located 40 km north of the German island of Borkum where six AREVA turbines have been producing electricity at sea since 2009.
Accompanied by Jean Huby, CEO of AREVA Wind, Peter Altmaier was given a thorough demonstration of the production of the M5000 5 megawatt wind turbines and four nacelles and had a detailed explanation of the component assembly. "I was quite impressed to see how carefully and precisely these huge offshore plants are produced, and with how little noise. I could see them in action this morning during my flight over Germany's first offshore windpark alpha ventus. The industry has already proven with success the reliability and availability of offshore wind power plants. I am convinced that this proven technology has a high potential for making a crucial contribution to an environmentally friendly production of electricity in Germany", he declared.
Jean Huby commented: "Offshore Wind is an essential component of our portfolio of low-carbon power generation technologies and very important for our Group. We are therefore very happy that the Federal Environment Minister, Mr. Altmaier, has come to our Bremerhaven site to see for himself the rapid expansion of our production. With the continuous development of our technology, large investments and the creation of hundreds of jobs here at the Bremerhaven site we are making our contribution to the important topic of power supply and to cost-optimized power generation. We are confident that the Federal Government will continue to develop the framework conditions for making the promise of a sustainable offshore wind industry come true in Germany.”