Global Tech I

Global Tech I is a 400 MW offshore wind farm in the German North Sea located roughly 90–140 km north‑west of the German coast (commonly referenced as circa 96–140 km NW of Borkum/Emden). The project comprises a single commercial phase that was developed and is operated by the project company Global Tech I Offshore Wind GmbH. Its scale and early timing made it a high‑profile German southern‑North Sea installation: 80 turbines on tripod substructures were installed across a c.41 km² site in water depths around the high‑thirties to low‑forties metres. Global Tech I was notable for several programmatic and commercial reasons. The project used a self‑installing floating offshore substation platform and long export linkages to the mainland and required coordination with the BorWin HVDC transmission cluster; connection plans and cable routings were revised during planning and early operation (BorWin assignments were reallocated between BorWin2/BorWin3 and later BorWin gamma adjustments). Construction began in the early 2010s, offshore installation progressed through 2013–2014 and the wind farm entered commercial operation in 2015. The project attracted large institutional financing, including an EIB‑syndicated package (the EIB’s contribution cited at EUR 500 million), reflecting the large capex and pioneering offshore scale for Germany at the time. Operationally the farm has functioned as a conventional merchant‑scale asset in the German fleet; its development and grid‑integration experience fed into subsequent regional planning for BorWin cluster capacity. The Global Tech I programme is documented in developer materials and multiple industry sources; this summary sticks to documented programme and commercial milestones without extrapolating beyond cited reports.