Munich. TÜV SÜD was commissioned by the BARD Group to carry out project certification of the two offshore projects 'Bernstein' and 'Citrin'. The projects are located in the North Sea within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Certification is a prerequisite for approval of the projects by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency.

"Certification of the two projects will initially be confined to the first approval", says Alexander Heitmann, Head of the Offshore Wind Energy Department at TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH in Hamburg. Within the scope of the first approval, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) will decide on approval of new offshore wind projects in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The EEZ comprises an area off the German coast at a distance of 12 to 200 sea miles from land. The BARD Group's offshore projects, Bernstein ('Amber') and Citrin ('Citrine') are located in the western North Sea around 110 kilometres off the German coastline. Each project will deliver a total of 520 megawatts of installed capacity for 80 wind turbines each with a capacity of 6.5 MW.

Certification for the first approval will focus on an analysis of the basic design principles known as the 'design basis'. "This examination focuses on the entire basic technical and standard-based principles of the future project and analysis of the subsoil, foundation report and foundation structure", explains Ulrich Knopf, Project Head of TÜV SÜD Industrie Service. The experts from TÜV SÜD carried out tests and examinations based on the BSH standard "Design of Offshore Wind Turbines". Certification is a requirement for BSH approval of new wind turbines in the EEZ and of the Bernstein and Citrin projects.

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service is among the leading certification companies for wind turbines and for full-scale projects in the offshore and onshore sectors. The experts in the company's Offshore Wind Services department support planners, constructors, investors and operators by supplying certification of offshore wind farms, technical testing of offshore structures, drawing up risk analyses, developing and monitoring occupational health and safety programmes and providing complete supervision of offshore projects. A further area of focus is the inspection and monitoring of production of all components, including interdisciplinary quality assurance of the interaction of individual components and harmonization of design and production. In addition, the TÜV SÜD experts also carry out periodic inspections of offshore wind turbines throughout their entire service life.

Further information on TÜV SÜD wind energy services is available on the Internet at
www.tuev-sued.de/windenergie