The first turbine at developer Northland’s 269MW Deutsche Bucht wind farm off Germany has started delivering power to the country’s grid.

Once all 33 of the project’s 8.4MW MHi Vestas machines, installed earlier this year, are operational at the end of 2019, Deutsche Bucht will produce 1.1 million MWh of power annually, meeting the demand of some 328,000 households.

“This is a great achievement for our Deutsche Bucht project,” said Jens Poulsen, Northland’s project director. “The rapid progress on installation and commissioning was made possible by the dedication of our team, combined with excellent cooperation by all partners, especially the grid operator and the BSH licensing authority.”

Northland CEO Mike Crawley added: “Achieving the goals [of bringing the project online on-time and on-budget] is a significant accomplishment and a testament to our Deutsche Bucht project team and its partners.

“We look forward to adding 269MW to our existing portfolio of offshore wind capacity in Germany.”

To-date 21 of the wind farm’s turbines have been installed. Final fabrication on its two innovative ‘mono bucket’ foundations currently underway at Bladt Industries facilities in Denmark, with installation and cabling for the two unit and their turbines planned for the fourth quarter.

Northland recently took handover from contractor Van Oord of Deutsche Bucht’s offshore substation, which is connected to grid operator TenneT’s BorWin Beta offshore converter station.

Deutsche Bucht, being build 95 kilometres to the northwest of the North Sea island of Borkum in Germany’s Exclusive Economic Zone, is Northland’s third offshore wind project.