Construction begins on Glennmont and Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany
Tuesday 12 December 2023
Glennmont Partners from Nuveen (“Glennmont”), one of the world’s largest fund managers investing in clean energy, and renewables developer Ørsted, have commenced installation of their 913MW German offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 3.
The installation of the wind farm, of which Glennmont acquired a 50% stake from Ørsted in early 2022, has commenced 70km off the coast in the North Sea. Once fully commissioned in 2025, Borkum Riffgrund 3 will be the largest wind farm by export capacity in Germany.
The construction phase of the project will see 83 monopile foundations set by installation company Jan De Nul Group. These steel foundations, which are up to 100 meters long and weigh up to 1,500 tons, will support next-generation SG 11.0-200 DD offshore wind turbines, to be installed next year. With 11 megawatts capacity and a rotor diameter of 200 meters, these will be some of the largest turbines in the German North Sea to date.
Joost Bergsma, CEO and Managing Partner at Glennmont Partners, commented:
“It is fantastic to see the construction of Borkum Riffgrund 3 commence, and Glennmont looks forward to its planned commissioning in 2025.
The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm is a landmark development both for Glennmont and for North Sea renewables more widely. It marks an attractive proposition for investors, providing over 900MW of reliable, clean, low cost energy, and will be a significant step in meeting Europe’s decarbonization and energy security ambitions.
The continued strong progress of Borkum Riffgrund 3 is a testament to the success of our partnership with Ørsted, and we look forward to working together with the Ørsted team as we drive forward on this project.”
Upon acquiring their 50% stake in the project, Glennmont led a consortium of investors including Nuveen’s parent TIAA, listed Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Company and other institutional investors from the USA and Germany. The remaining 50% of the project is owned by Ørsted, who will construct the wind farm under a full-scope EPC contract, perform operations and maintenance services for 20 years, and provide a route to market for power and green certificates.