Riffgat
Located 15 km NW of Borkum island in the southern North Sea, the first commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Borkum.
Status
Operationallifecycle stage
Ownership
EWEEWE — 99.58% ◆
EEENOVA Energiesysteme — 0.42% ◆
Location
GermanyNorth Sea
Technology
Capacity
108 MW ◆
Turbines
30 × 3.6 MW ◆
Model
Siemens Swt 3-6-120 ◆
Foundation
Monopile ◆
Site & conditions
Site rights
Seabed rights held ∴
Water depth
18–23 m ◆
Distance from shore
15 km ◆
Wind speed
9.7 m/s @ 100 m ≈
Revenue & grid
Offtake
FiT ◆
Grid
Secured · 2014-02 ◆
Connection
TenneT AC connection (50 km submarine cable + 30 km land cable, … ◆
Schedule
FID
Taken · date not recorded ∴
COD
Feb 2014 ◆
Project timeline verified milestones only — each date carries its provenance mark
Dashed tick marks today (9 Sep 2026).
Announced-COD history: 2014-Q1→2014-02 · 2 recorded revisions · held (announced 2014-Q1, unchanged)
Revenue & offtake the regime the project was built under
Offtake regime: EEG 2012 feed-in tariff (15.0 ct/kWh for 12 years)
A built project sells its power under the contract or support regime it was financed with; it is not expected to bid into new government offtake rounds. Where the record does not yet name that regime, the row says so rather than guessing.
Installation how the build is going · from satellite counts and Hafrok’s registers
Satellite survey
the farm as it stands, counted from satellite radar images · built before the count began, so there is no build to chart
Satellite survey
Structures standing29≈30 turbines + 1 platform expected · 2 fewer than expected — a position the survey missed
Surveyed2026-08-31≈from 90 satellite passes
Built2012-06 → 2014-02offshore construction to start of operation, from the record
Hafrok counts the structures standing in the sea from satellite radar images (≈) and reads the count against the turbines and platforms on record. The farm was built before this count began, so the images show it complete; they cannot date its construction. Rows marked with a dot (·) come from Hafrok’s own registers.
Satellite image
Image taken2026-09-06≈Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar satellite, southbound pass · 2 newer passes skipped because the satellite’s track only caught part of the farm (the best of them 0%)
Farm covered100%≈the whole farm lies inside the image
Structures ringed29 confirmed · 0 not yet confirmed≈as counted on 2026-08-31 · the image is newer than the count, so a bright spot without a ring may be a structure not yet counted
Construction ports
PortEmden / Borssum (onshore substation terminus) ◆·grid connection · quay 5500 m · draft 11.9 m
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026, processed by ESA and by Microsoft Planetary Computer.
Latest satellite radar image · 2026-09-06
a radar picture, not a photograph: the sea is dark, steel is bright · black is beyond the edge of the image
confirmed structure (29)seen recently, not yet confirmed (0)probably a substation platform (a larger structure than a turbine; the register above has the facts)farm boundary
Grid connection
from Hafrok’s substation, converter and cable registers
Offshore platforms · 1
Offshore substationUmspannplattform „Riffgat" (Riffgat offshore substation platform)·owner EWE / Offshore-Windpark Riffgat GmbH. See builder_basis below — the held evidence places the platform inside the wind farm and starts TenneT's asset at its outgoing cable, but does not state ownership in words.
Grid connection · ready in time?
when each part of the grid connection is due, against the start date the developer states (black line) · a bar spans the whole year, quarter or month the source gives
installed or in serviceexpected deliveryearlier date that was later moved
Sources & verification
15/18 fields verified · rests on 10 sources (3 primary) · ◆ 2 documents held
◆Verified≈Modelled◇Sourced∴Inferred⌁Convention○Unverified∅No source·Derived
Numbers are stable citation ids — grouped by source class, so they are not consecutive.
Regulator1
[13]
Bundesnetzagentur — Marktstammdatenregister2026-08-23◆ Marktstammdatenregister (MaStR) offshore…
“Park row "RIFFGAT": 30 units, 113.4 MW gross, statuses {'In Betrieb': 30}, operators ['Offshore-Windpark RIFFGAT GmbH'], commissioned 2014-02-13..2014-03-02, planned None..None.”
supportsRegister entry
Operator1
[1]
EWE AG2024
“30 wind turbines manufactured by Siemens [...] 3.6 megawatt units each [...] Rotor diameter: 120 meters [...] 15 kilometers off the north seas of Borkum [...] Water depth ranges from 18 to 23 meters […”
supportsTurbinesModelUnit capacityFoundationWater depth+1 more
Trade press7
[2]
GlobalData / Power Technology2024
Press report — cited, not quoted; read it at the source link.
supportsTurbinesModelUnit capacityTotal capacityFoundation
[3]
offshoreWIND.biz2014-02-11
Press report — cited, not quoted; read it at the source link.
supportsFinal investment decisionFirst powerCommercial operationCOD historyStatus+2 more
[6]
Schiff & Hafen (trade press)2010-10-13◆ Baugenehmigung für Offshore-Windpark Rif…
"Das Gewerbeaufsichtsamt Oldenburg hat jetzt die Baugenehmigung für den Offshore-Windpark Riffgat erteilt [...] 30 Windenergieanlagen, jeweils mit einer Leistung von 3,6 MW [...] circa 15 km nordwestl…
supportsConsentConsent granted
[8]
Clean Energy Wire2017
“Facilities that become operational before 2020 can choose between a fixed payment of 15.4 ct/KWh for 12 years or 19.4 ct/KWh for eight years [...] After this period, the basic reward is reduced to 3.9…”
supportsMechanismDetail
[9]
offshoreWIND.biz2012-09-07
Press report — cited, not quoted; read it at the source link.
supportsOffshore constructionSite rights
[10]
Power Technology2024
Press report — cited, not quoted; read it at the source link.
supportsowner
[12]
Encyclopaedic1
[11]