The link connects offshore wind farms about 75km off the German coast in the DolWin cluster, with the country’s transmission grid.
It spans 75km as a subsea cable from the DolWin alpha converter station to the landfall point in Hilgenriedersiel. It will then run 90km as an underground cable to the converter station in Dörpen-West (Heede), in Lower Saxony.
The DolWin1 grid connection is part of Germany’s energy transition roadmap, which expects to increase offshore wind generation capacity to more than 6.5GW by 2020 and 15GW by 2030.
ABB’s scope of work included the design, engineering supply and installation of the offshore and onshore converter stations along with the submarine and underground cable systems.
ABB Power Systems division president Claudio Facchin said: "We are proud to hand over the DolWin1 offshore wind grid connection to TenneT and to make a significant contribution to Germany’s target of increasing its share of renewables in the energy mix."
Two offshore wind farms, the 215MW Borkum West II and 312MW Borkum Riffgrund I, are connected through submarine cables to the DolWin alpha offshore converter station.
The DolWin1 project is the fifth grid connection system brought online for TenneT this year. Together, they can achieve a transmission capacity of about 4.3GW.
Image: The DolWin1 power line runs 75km as a subsea cable from the DolWin alpha converter station to the landfall point in Hilgenriedersiel. Photo: courtesy of ABB.
