Hamburg (Germany)/ Ostend (Belgium), 23 September 2008. Having assembled the rotor for the sixth turbine, REpower Systems AG (WKN: 617703) has just successfully completed the pilot phase for the Belgian offshore wind farm Thornton Bank. The company C-Power is the contracting party for the project, located approximately 30 km from Zeebrugge in a water depth of some 25 metres. C-Power’s plan is to develop the Thornton Bank wind farm to a total of 300 megawatts (MW).

This turbine installed in Belgium is the 17th REpower 5M erected by the wind turbine manufacturer based in Hamburg. This means that REpower has retained its position as market leader in large megawatt turbines i.e. wind turbines with more than 3.6 MW nominal capacity. “In addition to the Beatrice project in the Scottish North Sea, Thornton Bank represents the second wind farm that we have installed in deep waters – and that despite the adverse weather conditions that prevailed in the North Sea this summer,” emphasised Norbert Giese, director of the REpower Offshore business division.

Once all project phases have been completed, Thornton Bank will produce around 1,000 GWh of power per year, enough energy to cover the yearly usage of some 600,000 people.

More pictures of the wind farm Thornton Bank free of charge are to be found in the photo archive of the site www.repower.de.