Located about 70km to the west of the island of Sylt, the 864MW SylWin1 platform will convert alternating current coming from the Dan Tysk, Butendiek and Sandbank offshore wind farms into direct current.
The direct current will be transported to land through a 205km-long subsea cable.
TenneT has appointed Siemens as the main contractor to work on the SylWin alpha platform.
Earlier in July 2014, Siemens has completed the 690MW HelWin2 converter station near the German island of Heligoland, also in the North Sea.
The HelWin beta is TenneT’s fifth grid HVDC offshore platform, which is scheduled to commence operation in 2019.
The platforms installation work at the first four grid connections has already been completed and commercial operations are expected to start between the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2015.
TenneT Germany offshore director Wilfried Breuer said the SylWin1 and HelWin2 platforms will provide about1.5GW of additional capacity for feeding offshore wind energy into the onshore transmission grid.
"The German government has decided to increase the transmission capacity for offshore wind energy by 6.5 gigawatts in the period until 2020. In 2015, two-thirds of that target will already have been achieved," Breue added.
Image: The 864MW SylWin1 platform is located about 70 km to the west of the island of Sylt. Photo: Courtesy of TenneT Holding B.V.
