EnBW completes turbine installation at 960 MW He Dreiht as Vestas blade probe continues

EnBW has finished installing all 64 wind turbines at the 960 MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, completing the turbine campaign roughly sixteen months after the first unit went in^[1]. The final turbine was set in place in mid-August 2026, with full commissioning expected by late summer. The milestone arrives three weeks after a blade failure on 22 July that prompted a Vestas root-cause investigation still underway.

What was installed and how

He Dreiht's 64 turbines are Vestas V236-15.0 MW machines - the commercial debut of Vestas' 15 MW offshore platform. The first unit was installed by Cadeler's heavy-lift vessel Wind Orca on 24 April 2025; a second Cadeler vessel, Wind Keeper, joined the campaign as the project passed roughly 70% completion. By the end of June 2026, 59 of the 64 turbines were in place and 43 were connected to the grid. Technical and electrical commissioning work will continue over the coming weeks before EnBW declares the farm fully operational.

The project sits approximately 85 km northwest of Borkum and 110 km west of Heligoland. At 960 MW, He Dreiht will be Germany's largest offshore wind farm on full commissioning, and is expected to supply around 1.1 million households annually.

The blade failure and its consequences

On 22 July, a blade detached from one of the V236-15.0 MW turbines^[1]. A roughly 20-metre section drifted just below the water surface - invisible to standard ship radar - between the operational Hohe See wind farm and the He Dreiht construction site, posing a navigation hazard. German Federal Police dispatched a patrol vessel to secure the debris and redirect shipping traffic after on-site work vessels failed to retrieve it.

EnBW confirmed no injuries and said authorities were notified immediately. In response, the company halted work on the affected turbine and on blades from the same production batch. Vestas said it has made progress narrowing the investigation to a specific area of the blade, but a final conclusion has not been reached. The probe is running in parallel with the commissioning programme.

The incident is significant beyond He Dreiht: the V236-15.0 MW is Vestas' flagship offshore platform, and He Dreiht is its first large-scale commercial deployment. How the root-cause finding lands will have implications for the broader fleet.

Financing and offtake

He Dreiht is being built without state subsidies, with total investment of approximately €2.4 billion. EnBW holds a 50.1% stake; a consortium of Allianz Global Investors, AIP Management, and Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) holds the remaining 49.9%.

The majority of the farm's output is already committed under long-term PPAs, covering a cross-section of German industrial and corporate buyers:

• Google - 100 MW, 15-year PPA signed February 2026
• Evonik - 150 MW (100 MW + 50 MW tranches), 15-year term
• Deutsche Telekom (PASM) - 100 MW
• Fraport (Frankfurt Airport operator) - 85 MW
• Bosch - 50 MW
• Salzgitter Flachstahl - 50 MW
• SHS - Stahl-Holding-Saar - 50 MW
• Deutsche Bahn - 20 MW
• DHL Group - 20 MW, 10-year term

EnBW has said discussions with additional offtakers for remaining volumes are ongoing.

What to watch

The Vestas investigation is the immediate variable. If the root cause points to a manufacturing or design issue affecting the wider V236 batch, EnBW may face further work stoppages that push the late-summer commissioning target. The farm's subsidy-free structure means any delay in full output has a direct revenue consequence, with no floor price to cushion merchant exposure. Vestas has not given a timeline for concluding the probe.