Why Iberdrola’s Wikinger offshore wind farm still sets a quiet benchmark in the Baltic Sea

Reviewed: ad hoc news B2B & Pro desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-20, 07:14. Details in the imprint.

In the half-light of the Baltic morning, Iberdrola’s Wikinger offshore wind farm sits like a metallic archipelago off the coast of Rügen, 70 turbines turning steadily in the wind. The Wikinger wind farm does not shout for attention, but its 350 MW quietly feed German homes with North Sea-style consistency.

Where Wikinger stands today

Wikinger is Iberdrola’s first fully owned offshore wind farm in Germany, located in the Baltic Sea, around 75 kilometers off the island of Rügen in water depths of up to 40 meters. Each of the 70 turbines is rated at 5 MW, giving the project an installed capacity of 350 MW.

The farm reached full commissioning in late 2017, after a construction phase that included laying more than 80 kilometers of submarine cables and installing a dedicated offshore substation. Iberdrola estimates that Wikinger can supply clean power to roughly 350,000 German households in a typical year.

Technology and daily experience

Wikinger uses Adwen AD 5-135 turbines with a rotor diameter of 135 meters, blades sweeping an area larger than two football fields. From a service vessel, technicians see a dense forest of white towers, each anchored on jacket foundations built to handle the Baltic’s harsh winter storms.

The jackets stand on suction bucket foundations driven into the seabed, a solution Iberdrola chose to reduce underwater noise during installation and improve stability on softer ground. Power from the turbines runs through the Wikinger substation to the 50Hertz-operated grid connection, embedding the farm firmly in Germany’s energy transition.

What the output delivers

With 350 MW of capacity and favorable Baltic winds, Iberdrola expects annual generation of about 1.4 TWh of electricity from Wikinger. That output avoids the emission of roughly 600,000 tonnes of CO? per year compared with conventional generation, based on company estimates.

In everyday terms, that means lights, heat pumps, and trains in northeastern Germany can run on a little more wind and a little less gas. For residents, the farm remains mostly invisible from the shore, yet its contribution shows up in regional grid statistics and cleaner air.

How the project was financed

Wikinger operates under Germany’s feed-in tariff framework for offshore wind projects awarded before the shift to competitive auctions. This gives Iberdrola long-term price visibility for the electricity sold, supporting stable project-level cash flows over the asset’s life.

The total investment volume for Wikinger is around 1.4 billion euros, according to Iberdrola’s project documentation. Financing combined equity from the group with debt, including green loan instruments aligned with the company’s broader sustainable financing strategy.

Synergies with Baltic Eagle and beyond

Iberdrola is now building the nearby Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm, which will add 476 MW of capacity in the same Baltic cluster. Shared infrastructure, operations bases in Sassnitz-Mukran, and joint service teams are designed to lower operating expenses per megawatt across the cluster.

Together, Wikinger and Baltic Eagle are expected to exceed 800 MW of offshore capacity in German waters once both are fully operational. Iberdrola has flagged this Baltic hub as a strategic pillar alongside its UK and US offshore portfolios, giving it geographic and regulatory diversification.

Where it quietly falls short

Compared with newer turbines above 12 MW, Wikinger’s 5 MW units look modest and require more individual foundations and maintenance visits for the same capacity. Newer projects also benefit from more efficient blades and higher towers, increasing output per installed megawatt.

Wikinger’s fixed feed-in tariff offers revenue certainty but caps upside in times of very high wholesale prices. Newer auction-based parks can sometimes capture higher merchant revenues, albeit with more volatility and risk on the developer’s balance sheet.

Context and stock reference

For Iberdrola, Wikinger is less a headline-grabbing megaproject and more a solid, contracted workhorse in a growing offshore portfolio. It underpins regulated-style earnings while the company pushes into larger projects in the North Sea, UK waters, and the US East Coast.

Shares of Iberdrola S.A. (ES0144580Y14) trade on the Bolsa de Madrid, where the group forms part of the IBEX 35 benchmark index.

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