HAMBURG – WINDEA Offshore GmbH & Co. KG from Hamburg celebrates its 10th company anniversary on 11 May 2021. Under the WINDEA brand, the companies Bernhard Schulte Offshore GmbH, Buss Offshore Solutions GmbH & Co. KG and Ems Maritime Offshore GmbH bundle their know-how and a wide range of services for the construction and operation of offshore wind farms. Since 2011, the joint venture has been offering holistic logistics and supply solutions for the offshore wind industry as a shared sales and product development company. WINDEA’s numerous well-known customers include Siemens Gamesa Renewables, GE Renewable Energy, Northland Power, EnBW, and DEME.

After three offshore pilot projects near the coast, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, the alpha ventus offshore test field, went into operation in 2010, providing further momentum for the founding of the company. The founding shareholders in 2011 were the shipping company Bernhard Schulte, the maritime service provider Ems Maritime Offshore and the wind energy service provider SSC Wind. At the beginning of 2018, the Buss Group joined as a fourth shareholder and added heavy lift terminal logistics to the service portfolio, among other things. Since the acquisition of SSC Wind in July 2019, Buss additionally represents their services within the WINDEA family. “We now bundle such a wide range of services that we are not only able to serve almost all of our customers’ enquiries as a single point of contact but are able to use the diverse and excellent know-how within the WINDEA family to continually develop new innovative approaches to solving the challenges of the industry,” says Caspar Spreter, Managing Director WINDEA Offshore.

The development of a WINDEA fleet of vessels reached its first highlight in 2013 with the commissioning of the Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) “WINDEA one”. Further five CTVs followed by 2018, along with three Service Operation Vessels (SOV) with the WINDEA La Cour in 2016, the WINDEA Leibniz in 2017 and the WINDEA Jules Verne last year. Another milestone in the company’s history, also in 2013, is the establishment of an exclusive partnership for the development of the WINDEAcare product. Together with the current partner companies NHC Northern Helicopter, Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe, Klinikum Oldenburg and Falck Fire Service, WINDEA is successfully implementing the practice-oriented and holistic concept for medical care in the offshore wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The service modules include offshore air rescue (HEMS), emergency paramedics on vessels and platforms, offshore medical rescue training, material concepts, telemedicine services for paramedics and first-aiders, and offshore fire-fighting and fire protection concepts.

In recent years, WINDEA Offshore has faced the further development and the constantly new challenges of the still relatively young offshore wind industry with further innovative product developments such as “WINDEA Blade Services”, “WINDEA Balance of Plant (BoP)” as well as innovative vessel, terminal, and logistics concepts. The constant focus on the offshore wind markets outside Germany and Europe, which are also developing, has led to the progressive internationalisation of the company. In April 2019, the company successfully entered the US offshore wind market by founding the joint venture WINDEA USA together with MidOcean Wind.

“In Germany, we are currently in a phase in which the industry is experiencing a lean period due to a lack of regular construction of offshore wind farms. However, in recent years we have positioned ourselves with strong shareholders, brought additional partners on board and focused on relevant foreign markets. Consequently, we are very positive about our future, not least because Germany has also tightened its targets in the course of  the increasingly urgent climate issue and the offshore wind market will continue to grow as an important sector,” adds Caspar Spreter.

Today, WINDEA’s extensive portfolio includes marine services with the WINDEA fleet of vessels, maritime and nautical services such as maritime surveillance and marine coordination, the installation as well as maintenance and repair of offshore turbines, large component exchange, port as well as terminal and logistics services, helicopter services, and holistic medical care in offshore wind farms. This also includes the provision of service technicians and other personnel who are deployed along the offshore wind value chain and need to be trained accordingly. Since the beginning of March this year, WINDEA has also included this service in its portfolio. By joining Heinemann Projektberatung GmbH, a certified service provider for safety and technical training, as a shareholder, both companies will benefit from many synergy effects in the areas of industry training and material management and great potential for new customer access as well as innovative business developments.