E.ON is planning to build a large offshore wind farm in the North Sea. This was announced by the company today at the 5th Maritime Conference of the German Environment Ministry in Hamburg. The wind farm will be built roughly 40 kilometers (approx. 25 miles) to the northwest of the East Frisian island of Juist. To this end, E.ON has now taken over the Offshore Wind Park Delta North Sea project from the Enova Group. The sea area selected has already been designated as particularly suitable for this purpose by the Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH – German Federal Agency of Maritime Shipping and Hydrography).

During the first phase, E.ON will install 80 wind turbines, each rated at more than 3.5 megawatts. Building and operating permits have already been obtained for 48 turbines, and applications have been filed for another 32 turbines.

With this project, E.ON is continuing its Group-wide technology initiative. One of the priorities of this initiative is the optimization of renewable energy sources, which includes several offshore wind farm projects in the UK, the Nordic countries and Germany. By the year 2011, E.ON will have installed wind turbines with a total capacity of 500 megawatts off Germany''s shores and will thus assume the leading role in the use of wind power.