Trianel Windpark Borkum (Phase 1)

Trianel Windpark Borkum Phase 1 is a 200 MW municipal-consortium offshore wind farm sited roughly 45 km north of the German island of Borkum. The first phase comprises 40 Areva (Adwen) M5000-116 turbines mounted on tripod substructures and was developed as a pioneer municipal offshore project that sought to demonstrate larger-scale, consortium-led deployment of offshore turbines by regional utilities. The park shares an onsite offshore substation (an elevated, two-deck transformer platform) with a later expansion stage, allowing reuse of the internal grid infrastructure and simplifying the export arrangement. Electricity from the platform is exported to the DolWin Alpha HVDC converter (DolWin 1) and then carried onshore for reconversion and integration into TenneT’s transmission network. Construction commenced in 2011 with turbine installation and tripod foundation work staged through 2014–2015; the farm entered commercial operation in 2015 after grid-connection delays during commissioning. Trianel Windpark Borkum I is notable for being one of Germany’s first purely municipal offshore projects and for the use of tripod foundations with driven pin piles (“steel nails”) at each leg. Operational management and later service contracts have focused on sustaining availability of the Adwen AD5-116 fleet while operators leverage the shared substation to optimise phasing and logistics between the two park stages.