The foundation of a large converter platform has been pulled out of the dock hall at the Wismar shipyard. Prior to this, the shipbuilding hall was completely flooded, NDR.de news site informs.
The next step is shipping the foundation of the “HelWin alpha” platform to the North Sea. It will be anchored to the seabed, in a water depth of 23 meters northwest of Helgoland. The upper part of the offshore platform will follow in a few months.
Offshore technology is a great opportunity for Nordic Yards in Wismar and Warnemünde. Following the bankruptcy in 2008, traditional shipbuilding companies are far from safe waters, but now, with the construction of offshore converter platforms they have managed to secure a leading position in the market.
Nordic Yards is the only manufacturer of these platforms in Germany. The two shipyards in Wismar and Warnemünde employ 1,135 people. The orders for the platforms in question have already ensured work until 2017.
At the end of February, Nordic signed a contract to build an offshore converter platform for Alstom. The platform will feed 900 megawatts of renewable energy from wind farms in the German North Sea into the German grid in the future.
The finished structure measures more than 80 meters from the ground up to the cranes on deck. “HelWin alpha” is the second of four offshore converter platforms in the order books of Nordic Yards. It should go online and convert the power before forwarding it to the mainland in 2014.
The “HelWin alpha” will process up to 576 megawatts of electricity from several wind farms in the North Sea and the platform is designed for a service life of 30 years.
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Offshore WIND Staff, March 29, 2013; Image: Nordic Yards