DNV GL Certifies Arkona Offshore Wind Farm

Norwegian testing and advisory company DNV GL said it awarded the Arkona Offshore Wind Farm with the project certificate.

The certification was carried out according to the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH – Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie) standard BSH7005 and covers all stages of the project development from design planning over construction to commissioning.

The project certificate confirms all relevant safety features of the wind farm and validates the technical and quality compliance with the BSH standard requirements, to ensure a safe and reliable power supply.

Located in the Baltic sea, the Arkona project is 35 kilometres northeast of the German island of Rügen. The wind farm has capacity of 385 megawatts, enough to supply around 400,000 households with renewable energy, with 60 installed Siemens Gamesa turbines of the six- megawatt class.

As Germany is phasing out the fixed Feed-In-Tarif for renewable energy projects by 2020, the pressure to reduce the levelized cost of renewable energy remains high. Delivering the project within the set time frame was therefore pivotal for the timely opening of the Arkona wind farm. This was realised by meeting all milestones throughout the project development stage and providing a flexible handling of the project requirements such as working with a local team on site and involving a specialised pool of domain experts into the certification process.

Holger Matthiesen, Project Director Arkona for E.ON and Equinor commented: “Thanks to the great cooperation between our team of offshore experts and DNV GL’s goal-oriented and pragmatic certification approach, we managed to realise our ambitious objectives concerning our project certification timeline, which set a new standard in the offshore wind industry.”

During the certification process DNV GL worked in close partnership with the Arkona project team to ensure the ambitious timeline for the commissioning of the wind farm were met.

Kim Mørk Executive Vice President Renewables Certification at DNV GL said: “The experience of working with E.ON’s/Equinor’s team in previous projects has been vital to the success of the timely delivery of the project certification of the Arkona offshore wind farm. Ensuring that renewable projects deliver safe and reliable energy is critical to further accelerate the energy transition and we are very pleased that our partnership with the Arkona project is making a valuable contribution to reaching that goal.”

As critical milestones set by the BSH were set throughout the project, working in well-aligned partnership between offshore experts from both sides was crucial since each missed deadline set by the BSH causes costly delays in the project.

Fabio Pollicino, Director for Project Certification at DNV GL added: “With Arkona, E.ON/Equinor have set a new standard in the offshore industry with regards to the time in which the farm has been installed. We are very pleased to have proven our ability to perform the project certification on track with the ambitious project timeline, reacting flexibly to unplanned project needs and achieving the approvals from the national authority.”