Qualla: BARD Offshore 1 https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:34 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: BARD Offshore 1 https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1 BARD Offshore 1: Introduction https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1/ Photo credit A lot of wind, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dr. Bekker wanted to leave something for his children. In 2006, with offshore wind still a new industry, he could not buy five-megawatt turbines in the numbers he needed — so he decided his company, BARD, would build its own. Rotor blades and nacelles from a new factory in Emden. Foundations from Cuxhaven. Eighty turbines installed in 40 metres of water, 100 kilometres northwest of Borkum. It would be one of the most ambitious industrial projects in modern German history, and a cautionary tale that wind-industry executives still tell each other in quiet voices. Bekker's children would inherit not a thriving company but the lessons of its collapse.

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Image: A lot of wind | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/u1sj-bard-offshore-1-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full BARD Offshore 1: The Plan, and the Distance https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1/ Photo credit IGB Ingenieurgesellschaft, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most early offshore wind farms hugged the coast. BARD Offshore 1 went further than anyone had gone — 100 kilometres into open North Sea, in water deeper than any operating wind farm at the time, beyond the limit of routine helicopter response. The 200-kilometre cable connection b...

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Image: IGB Ingenieurgesellschaft | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/u1sj-bard-offshore-1-the-plan-and-the-distance.mp3 0:06 2 full BARD Offshore 1: Two Lives Lost https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1/ Photo credit A lot of wind, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two people died building BARD Offshore 1. A commercial diver in 2010 — the German press reported a diving accident in the wind park, without naming the man for his family's sake. And in January 2012, an offshore worker went missing in conditions the German Maritime Search and Res...

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Image: A lot of wind | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/u1sj-bard-offshore-1-two-lives-lost.mp3 0:06 3 full BARD Offshore 1: Bankruptcy, Then a Mystery https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1/ Photo credit A lot of wind, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bill kept climbing. The original budget was already ambitious; by completion, the project had cost roughly €3 billion, three years behind schedule. BARD itself filed for bankruptcy in November 2013, just months after the inauguration. Worse, when the farm finally tried to fee...

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Image: A lot of wind | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/u1sj-bard-offshore-1-bankruptcy-then-a-mystery.mp3 0:06 4 full BARD Offshore 1: Turned Around, Quietly https://qualla.com/bard-offshore-1/ Photo credit A lot of wind, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story did not end in ruin. Operations were run by Ocean Breeze Energy, who extended their power-marketing contract with Statkraft in September 2015. By May 2016, the operating company could report that the wind farm had produced three terawatt-hours of electricity and was run...

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Image: A lot of wind | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/s/j/bard-offshore-1-wp/u1sj-bard-offshore-1-turned-around-quietly.mp3 0:06 5 full