OREANDA-NEWS. E.ON reached an important milestone for Arkona Becken S?dost, a wind farm it plans to build in the German Baltic Sea, by selecting the Port of Sassnitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as the farm’s logistics base during construction and its future operations center. With Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Energy Minister Christian Pegel in attendance, E.ON Project Director Holger Matthiesen and Port of Sassnitz Manager Director Harm Sievers signed contracts for the deal in Binz, a beach resort on R?gen island, today.

Major components for the wind farm would be preassembled on the wharf, which has a total area of 25 acres (10 hectares), and loaded onto ships for installation in the Baltic Sea. E.ON also plans to operate the wind farm from the port during its service life of at least 25 years.

The project would provide Sassnitz with important economic impetus. Up to 300 people would help build the wind farm during the two-year construction phase. Once in service, the wind farm would create up to 50 permanent jobs for highly skilled staff in operations, administration, and maintenance as well as, indirectly, another 100 jobs for external service providers.

The construction of the wind farm calls for a compact harbor layout that facilitates the rapid loading and unloading of jack-up and installation ships. Creating this layout will require investments in the harbor infrastructure. The port will prepare and build the necessary wharf space and berths—including a heavy-duty space on the north end of the port—to ensure seamless transshipping and other processes.

Christian Pegel, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Energy Minister, said: “Arkona Becken S?dost would represent another step forward in our efforts to harness more of our offshore wind resource to generate renewable power. It would also increase value creation in our state. New offshore wind farms in the Baltic not only preserve existing construction jobs but also create new, long-term jobs in operations and maintenance, as would be the case with Arkona Becken S?dost. I’m therefore very glad that E.ON chose the Port of Sassnitz as its logistics base.”

Holger Matthiesen, Project Director of Arkona Becken S?dost, said: “The Port of Sassnitz would provide us with an ideal base for building Arkona Becken S?dost offshore wind farm. It would enable us to implement a logistics plan that will further reduce the costs of offshore wind. This agreement takes us another step closer to making the project happen.”

Harm Sievers, Managing Director of Sassnitz ferry terminal: “We’re pleased that E.ON was impressed by our offshore-wind expertise and our outstanding facilities. Now we’ll initiate the necessary measures so that we can provide E.ON with the best possible platform for its project.”

Arkona Becken S?dost would have a maximum grid-usage capacity of 385 megawatts and could generate enough electricity for 400,000 households. The wind farm would be located more than 35 kilometers north of R?gen Island. E.ON has not yet given the final go-ahead for the project. It will make this decision toward the end of the development phase.