DEME and Windreich have formed a new joint venture for the development of Merkur Offshore offshore wind project, formerly known as MEG I.
“Today’s announcement underlines our confidence in this project” , noted Alain Bernard, Director and Chief Executive Officer of the DEME group. “We are very pleased with the progress made to date, and look forward to contributing to the success of Merkur Offshore, not only by participating financially but also in terms of applying GeoSea’s expertise in offshore wind construction and installation to this project”.
GeoSea will continue its engagement in the offshore industry and act as general contractor for the installation of Merkur Offshore. Luc Vandenbulcke, Managing Director GeoSea, further added: “This is an important milestone for bringing this project to start construction, which is expected in the first half-year 2016. Since completing our acquisition of Hochtief’s assets earlier this year, GeoSea is well placed to bring Merkur Offshore project through construction”.
Merkur Offshore, formerly known as MEG I, is a permitted 400MW offshore wind farm project with secured grid connection, located approximately 45km north of Borkum in the German exclusive economic zone of the North Sea. Combining favourable sea bed conditions with one of the strongest and most reliable wind resources in the world, Merkur Offshore will be one of Germany’s largest wind farms in the North Sea, contributing significantly to Germany’s energy transition plans.
Merkur Offshore was originally developed by Windreich through a special purpose company. In March 2015 DEME announced its involvement in the project. Since then, the Merkur Offshore team has been staffed with over 20 package managers, contract negotiators and financial specialists. The project team is led by Holger Grubel from ONP Management (until recently project director of Vattenfall’s Dan Tysk and Sandbank projects) and Michael van der Heijden from Amsterdam Capital Partners (responsible for bringing the 600MW Gemini offshore wind project to financial close).