Deep-water wind energy coming to Germany

ESSEN, Germany, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- With 80 wind turbines in place, German utility company E.ON said Wednesday it was one step closer to activating a deep-water wind farm off the German coast.

The company said turbines were installed during the weekend at the site of the Amrumbank West wind project, situated about 20 miles northwest of the German island of Helgoland. Infrastructure construction began in January 2014.

"We are confident that we will soon be able to feed electricity generated by the first turbines into the public grid as planned," Dominik Schwegmann, lead project manager of Amrumbank West, said in a statement.

The project is slated for mid-2015 completion. At its peak, Amrumbank West will supply 288 megawatts of wind energy to the German grid, enough to meet the annual electricity demands of 300,000 average households.

Germany is one of the world leaders in renewable energy, a trend emphasized after its decision to move away from nuclear power wake of the nuclear tragedy in Japan in 2011.

E.ON says the Amrumbank West wind farm will help cut carbon emissions by as much as 740,000 tons per year. The company spent a total $1.1 billion on project development.