The DolWin1 connects the DolWin alpha converter station to the landfall point in Hilgenriedersiel as 75km-long subsea cable and then to the converter station in Dörpen-West (Heede), in Lower Saxony, Germany as underground cable system.
Currently, the 215MW Borkum West II and 312MW Borkum Riffgrund I offshore wind farms are connected to the DolWin alpha through submarine cables.
The DolWin1 grid connection is part of Germany’s Energiewende programme, which aims to generate more than 6.5GW offshore wind capacity by 2020 and 15GW by 2030.
For the project, ABB provided its HVDC Light voltage source converter. The company also installed the offshore and onshore converter stations, and 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."
With the commissioning of the DolWin1, transmission capacity of offshore grid connections in the North Sea reached around 4,300MW thereby contributing to the government’s plan to achieve 6,500MW by 2020.
Image: The DolWin1 power line connects offshore wind farms around 75km off the German coast in the DolWin cluster. Photo: courtesy of ABB.
