Lower Saxony seaports’ managing director announced that the total budget for dredging, construction and maintenance of port facilities in Brake, Cuxhaven, Emden, Stade and Wilhelmshaven for 2014 amounts to €72 million.
Offshore wind is in the centre of Lower Saxony’s ports plans for the development. Despite the crisis in the offshore wind industry, the management finds the utilisation of ports satisfying.
E.ON, German energy giant, is planning to deploy 80 foundations off the port of Cuxhaven for the construction of Amrumbank West offshore wind farm.
The Hannoverkai terminal in Wilhelmshaven has established itself as an offshore service port over the past year. The port hosted technical upgrading process and maintenance of Thor Hochtief jack-up platform and temporary storage of a 770-t foundation for the substation of RWE Innogy’s offshore wind farm “Nordsee Ost”.
At around 30,000 square meters in the port area of Norddeich, another offshore project is being realized. The Danish energy company Dong Energy will establish there an operating base for the wind farms Riffgrund 1 and 2 and Godewind 1 and 2. The building will be completed in the spring of 2015, when it will be available for the service teams in charge of operation and maintenance of the wind farms.
The management of Lower Saxony ports is observing the development of offshore manufacturers with concern.
“Nevertheless, we are confident that the offshore industry is recovering and that in the future it will grow moderately. We assume that our port facilities will be utilized by on-and offshore logistics,” said managing director of Niedersachsen Ports GmbH & Co. KG, Holger Banik.
Offshore WIND staff, February 18, 2014; Image: hafen-hamburg