Siemens Energy and Spain-based Dragados Offshore have been awarded a EUR 4 billion contract from Amprion to build converter stations for two offshore grid connections in Germany.
Under the contract, the consortium will design, build, and install the LanWin1 and LanWin3 offshore converter platforms in the North Sea.
The contract, which includes a ten-year maintenance agreement for Siemens Energy, will see the German company manufacture all major high-voltage equipment for the two connection systems, such as converter technology, transformers, and switchgear.
Siemens Energy’s scope of supply consists of two converter platforms at sea and two associated stations on land, located near Wehrendorf in Lower Saxony and Westerkappeln in northern North Rhine-Westphalia.
The company said that the contract is the largest it has received for an offshore grid connection to date and represents the world’s first order for a 2 GW grid connection at sea.
Meanwhile, Dragados Offshore will be responsible for the construction and offshore installation of the associated platforms. Construction will take place at the company’s shipyard in Cadis, Spain.
The connection systems are expected to transmit power as early as 2029 and 2030.
With transmission and transport capacity of 2 GW each, i.e. a total of 4 GW, these platforms will be able to power a major city of four million people like Berlin.
In addition, the systems are designed to be integrated into multi-terminal systems in the future. Instead of pure point-to-point connections, several direct current connections could converge in one station, the consortium said.
“The wind energy industry has repeatedly achieved outstanding technological advances in recent years, be it in the performance of wind turbines or grid connection. The two-gigawatt system fits in seamlessly here, making the transmission of green power more efficient and creating standardization where individual designs were previously necessary”, said Tom Holt , member of the Managing Board of Siemens Energy.
“Developments in the industry have taken time, which must no longer be wasted against the backdrop of ambitious offshore expansion targets and the drastic consequences of climate change.”
In November 2021, TenneT presented a solution in Germany that could significantly accelerate offshore grid expansion for wind power in the North Sea.
The concept revolved around three 2 GW wind power boosters, an interconnection hub called LanWin, and specific measures that would make it possible to integrate 6 GW of offshore wind power into the power grid as early as 2032, instead of 2035.
The German government officially increased offshore wind targets in April last year, as well as the timeline to reach them, with plans to have 30 GW of operational offshore wind by 2030, 40 GW by 2035, and at least 70 GW by 2045.
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