Iberdrola, 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, and Navantia hosted the delivery ceremony of the substation built for the 350MW Wikinger offshore wind farm at Navantia’s premises in Cadiz, on Monday, 8 August.
The substation was christened as Andalucía and was built by Navantia entirely at the company’s Puerto Real shipyard.
The entire structure, which includes a substation, jackets , offshore platform and piles, weighs approximately 8,500 tonnes in total. The substation will be shipped by barge to the German zone of the Baltic Sea during the month of August.
”This contract shores up Navantia’s position as a benchmark constructor for offshore structures in offshore wind farm applications, a growing sector in Europe, primarily in the United Kingdom and Germany,” Navantia’s Chairman José Manuel Revuelta said.
”Moreover, it allows Navantia to diversify its offer and provide work in a sector that is fully complementary to the naval sector.”
The substation Andalucía will become the power core of the offshore wind farm that Iberdrola is constructing in the Baltic Sea, and will distribute the electricity generated by the wind turbines operating in the open sea to shore.
This engineering project was designed by Iberdrola to withstand the extreme weather conditions in the region and comprises two sections, also referred to as superstructures, which will be employed by Iberdrola and 50Hertz, the electricity system operator in this region of Germany.
The Wikinger offshore wind farm will consist of 70 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 5 MW, at a site spanning an area of approximately 34 square kilometres. The EUR 1.4 billion project is scheduled to go online at the end of 2017.
“The prominent role of Spanish industry in this project shines brightly with the construction of the substation and its platform at these Navantia shipyards; the 29 wind turbine platforms at the Navantia shipyards at the Ferrol Ria; the piles that will secure these platforms, the wind turbine towers crafted in Avilés by the Asturian company Windar, and, last but not least, the wind turbines built by Gamesa (Adwen),” Ignacio Galán, Iberdrola’s CEO, said.
”At Puerto Real, the execution of the contract has created jobs for hundreds of workers and involved over 120 regional companies in their capacities as suppliers.”