Construction Starts on Baltic Power Service Base in Poland

Fixed-Bottom

January 26, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Work on the construction of a service base that will serve the Baltic Power offshore wind farm, a joint project between ORLEN Group and Northland Power, has begun in Łeba, Poland.

The service base in Łeba will be ready in 2025, one year before the Baltic Power offshore wind farm becomes operational.

The service base will be a mother port for vessels transporting equipment and technical personnel responsible for maintaining the up to 1.2 GW Baltic Power offshore wind project.

The base will employ a total of around 60 people and will service the project for its entire life cycle i.e., a minimum of 25 years.

An area of approximately 1.1 hectares will house, a farm spare parts warehouse and a workshop while the waterfront will be able to accommodate vessels with a maximum length of 35 metres.

The base will be permanently serviced by 3-4 specialised vessels designed to transport equipment and service personnel. Each will take up to 24 technicians on board with full equipment.

The estimated cost of the investment is approximately PLN 62 million (approximately EUR 14 million).

“Offshore wind energy projects are accompanied by significant investment in onshore infrastructure. A station is already being built in the municipality of Choczewo to receive energy from the sea, and an Orlen Neptun installation terminal is under construction in Świnoujście, which will be used, among other things, for the construction of Baltic Power,” said Daniel Obajtek, President of the ORLEN Management Board.

According to Baltic Power, the most important tasks of the technicians operating from the base will include maintaining the proper operation of the wind farm through cyclical inspections of the wind turbines.

Baltic Power will be one of the first wind farms in the world to install 15 MW wind turbines, supplied by Vestas, and the first in the world to have a significant portion of its turbine towers made of low-emission steel, according to the developer.