Groundbreaking ceremony on Norderney: offshore wind power for 4 million people!

Groundbreaking ceremony on Norderney: offshore wind power for 4 million people!

On July 4, 2025, the starting signal was given for a promising project on the picturesque island of Norderney: construction work for the new grid connection of offshore wind farms has begun. Infrastructure developer Amprion announced that the work includes the cable routes for the “BalWin1” and “BalWin2” projects, which will connect the island with the wind farms in the North Sea. These initiatives combine the power of renewable energies and help cover the electricity needs of around four million people. In addition, a transmission capacity of up to 2,000 megawatts is aimed for, which will contribute significantly to the energy supply, as Tagesschau reports.

In order to enable the construction of new cable routes, the island of Norderney is being drilled. For nature conservation and coastal protection reasons, this takes place between mid-July and the end of September. The construction site area was set up early on in order to minimize material transport during the peak tourist season. High-ranking guests were invited to the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony, including Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Christian Meyer and Norderney's Mayor Frank Ulrichs.

More offshore projects at the start

But Norderney is not just the location for the work on “BalWin1” and “BalWin2”. The construction work for the offshore grid connection systems DolWin4 and BorWin4 also began here. These two projects, which are scheduled to be operational by 2028 and 2029, connect wind farms in the North Sea with the onshore transmission network. They will therefore replace the capacity of the Emsland nuclear power plant, which will be decommissioned in 2022, and provide output comparable to the needs of a city like Hamburg. As Amprion emphasizes, this will make Lower Saxony an important center for climate-friendly energy.

Amprion plans a total of five offshore grid connection systems that will be developed in the coming years. The expansion is taking place as part of a continuous spatial planning plan that defines the areas for wind energy in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Projections suggest over 10 gigawatts of installed capacity will be in operation by 2025, with a target of 70 gigawatts by 2030.

The future of wind energy in Germany

Offshore wind energy has undergone significant change in Germany in recent years. While the first wind farm, “Alpha Ventus”, started with a nominal output of 5 megawatts, systems with 15 megawatts and more will be manufactured from 2025 - with rotor blades that are the length of a football field. This new technology makes it possible to generate the energy that a modern single-family home consumes for a year in less than 30 minutes, as Umweltbundesamt explains.

However, the challenges in using offshore wind energy are not just technical. Spatial conflicts with shipping, fishing and other uses must also be taken into account. Nevertheless, in 2045 a forecast is made that offshore wind energy will contribute a fifth of all electricity generation in Germany.

In summary, it can be said that the construction work on Norderney represents the first step towards a climate-friendly future, not only for the region, but for the whole of Germany.