Germany Greenlights BorWin5 Offshore Grid Connection Project

Planning & Permitting

January 22, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has approved the offshore grid connection system for TenneT’s BorWin5 and BorWin epsilon project in the German North Sea.

This marks the last project to be implemented based on the specifications of the Federal Offshore Plan 2017 for the North Sea.

The area development plan, which has been creating the conditions for an orderly and synchronous expansion of offshore wind energy and the associated grid connections since 2019, applies to all upcoming projects, BSH said.

The planning approval decision refers to the BorWind epsilon converter platform and the submarine transmission cable for BorWin5, which will connect the 960 MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm to the grid.

The platform will be located in the middle of the offshore wind farm around 100 kilometres northwest of Norderney and 10 kilometres east of the existing Bard Offshore 1 offshore wind farm.

In 2020, TenneT awarded a consortium of Siemens and Dragados Offshore with a contract to build both the onshore and offshore converter stations for the 900 MW grid connection.

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The three-phase current generated by the wind farm is to be converted from 66 kV to a direct current of ±320 kV on the offshore converter platform BorWin epsilon and transported via an approximately 120- kilometre-long submarine cable via Norderney to the mainland to Hilgenriedersiel.

The transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT will commence laying the submarine cable in June 2024, while the platform is scheduled to be installed in mid-2025, BSH said.

The grid connection system is expected to go into operation by the end of 2025.