Inauguration of He Dreiht wind farm: Germany’s largest offshore wind farm boosts security of supply; 960 MW

[u/foersom]

https://www.enbw.com/press/inauguration-of-he-dreiht-wind-farm.html

[u/Rooilia]

Literally "It's revolving" in Platt.

[u/[deleted]]

That's should be the largest wind farm in Germany, waiting for full commissioning.

[u/phlegelhorn]

FYI: ai content but was curious… grain of salt

Short version: with rough but reasonable assumptions, this project lands around 4–6 eurocents per kWh (i.e. €0.04–0.06/kWh).

Back-of-the-envelope

1. Pure “no discount, no O&M” capital cost

• Total CAPEX: \(2.4 \times 10^9\) €
• Annual energy: \(3.6 \times 10^9\) kWh
• Lifetime: 30 years

Total lifetime energy:

3.6 \times 10^9 \text{ kWh/yr} \times 30 \text{ yr} = 1.08 \times 10^{11} \text{ kWh}

Capital-only cost per kWh:

\frac{2.4 \times 10^9}{1.08 \times 10^{11}} \approx 0.022 \text{ €/kWh} \approx 2.2 \text{ eurocents/kWh}

1. Add “typical” offshore wind O&M

For a big offshore wind farm, a ballpark is:

• Fixed O&M: ~\(70–100\) €/kW·yr
• 960 MW = 960,000 kW → annual O&M ≈ \(70–100 \times 960{,}000 \approx 67–96\) million €/yr

Take ~80 M€/yr as a midpoint:

Lifetime O&M (no discount):

80 \times 10^6 \text{ €/yr} \times 30 \text{ yr} = 2.4 \times 10^9 \text{ €}

So O&M is roughly another 2.2 c€/kWh on top of CAPEX.

1. Combined, simple (no discount) LCOE

\text{Total cost} \approx 2.4 \text{ B€ (CAPEX)} + 2.4 \text{ B€ (O&M)} = 4.8 \text{ B€}

\text{LCOE} \approx \frac{4.8 \times 10^9}{1.08 \times 10^{11}} \approx 0.044 \text{ €/kWh} \approx 4.4 \text{ eurocents/kWh}

If you layer in a realistic discount rate (say 6–8%), that typically nudges the result up a bit—hence the 4–6 c€/kWh range.

[u/Aakarsh_K → u/phlegelhorn]

What will be PLF?