Germany’s first offshore wind farm was made operational today, 45 kilometers off the coast in the North Sea. This new, green spectacle of German engineering has 12 turbines producing energy for 50,000 households.

The turbines, each 150 meters high, produce 12 megawatts of power and the total cost of the project was $361.01 million, the consortium of energy companies that built the wind farm reported.

The wind farm was partially built as a “test ground” to research the environmental damage on the underwater species from the wind turbines, which are embedded 30 meters below the surface.