The ground-breaking ceremony for the onshore converter station took place at the Dörpen West site in Heede, Germany, yesterday.
Representatives of Transmission System Operator TenneT, contractor Alstom and the mayors of the joint municipalities of Dörpen and Heede, together with local and regional politicians and public figures attended the event.
The onshore station is a key part of the 900 MW High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission grid connection, it will link major wind farms in the south west of the German North Sea to the onshore transmission grid. The connection is scheduled to be completed by 2017.
“DolWin3 is pivotal to offshore wind energy, and will contribute significantly to the future of energy supply”, says TenneT’s Offshore Managing Director, Wilfried Breuer.
“As general contractor, Alstom will build the complete infrastructure to transport offshore wind power via HVDC technology to the onshore grid, with low electric losses.” said Gerhard Seyrling, Alstom Grid’s Vice President for Central & Eastern Europe and Russia.
The DolWin3 project is the third connection in the offshore DolWin wind farm cluster in the German North Sea. It will use Direct Current (DC) technology with voltage source converters (VSC) to deliver the energy generated at sea through an 83 kilometres (km) sea cable to the mainland. From the coast, the wind power will then be transported another 79 km via an underground cable to the Dörpen West converter station.
DC links are particularly suitable for transmitting electricity over long distances at high power levels, and the best way to link to large offshore wind farms where the power flow is intermittent and needs to be captured when it is available.
The DolWin3 grid connection ensures that TenneT meets its obligations under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), guaranteeing the reliable transport of offshore wind power on land. The energy generated offshore will be transported via the Dörpen West substation towards the major consumption areas located in the west and south of Germany.