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Problems at sea

Christiane HabenichtMay 7, 2014

Developers want to build a gigantic wind farm off the shores of Germany's only high-sea island Heligoland. But storms and unexploded bombs from World War II are proving a real challenge.

https://p.dw.com/p/1BuuW
Heligoland wind farm turbine

Three huge wind farms are currently being set up 23 kilometers off the island of Heligoland, in the North Sea.

The island itself is undergoing a revamp: to become the world’s "first offshore service island" and serve as a base for people involved in the construction and maintenance of the wind farms. In addition to employees at the WindMW, Eon and RWE energy companies, there are other businesses coming to the island to participate in the offshore boom too.

The project, which will be used to provide green energy to southern Germany, is a costly endeavour and logistically a challenge. Engineers sometimes even have to clear unexploded World War II bombs from the construction site that are lying on the sea floor.