Polish Offshore Wind Farms Power Ahead

Planning & Permitting

February 1, 2024, by Adnan Memija

The Regional Director of Environmental Protection in Gdansk has issued a decision on the environmental conditions for the connection infrastructure of the Bałtyk II and Bałtyk III offshore wind projects in Poland.

This allows the project’s investors, Polenergia and Equinor, to continue the project and start working on the building permits.

“With his decision, the Regional Director for Environmental Protection confirmed that we have exercised all due diligence in designing the connection infrastructure. It has been planned in such a way as to minimize the impact of the investment on the environment and the lives of local communities,” said Marta Porzuczek, Director of the Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Department at Polenergia Group.

For the connection infrastructure of the Bałtyk II and Bałtyk III offshore wind farms, Equinor and Polenergia received an environmental decision in 2019. The developers applied for a new environmental decision due to changes in some elements of the onshore part of the investment, among other things the location of the exit of cable lines from the sea to the land.

The connection infrastructure will be located in the municipalities of Ustka and Słupsk in the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

The power output cable lines will run through the villages of Lędowo, Duninowo PGR, Pęplino, Bruskowo Leśnictwo, Bruskowo Małe, Bruskowo Wielkie, and Wielichowo. The connection point of both offshore wind farms to the National Power System will be the existing Słupsk-Wierzbięcino substation of the Polish Power Grid.

Offshore works, including the installation of inter-array cables and export cables, will begin in 2026. The inter-array cables, with a total length of up to 200 kilometres and a voltage of 66 kV, will connect the wind turbines of each of the farms and the offshore substations.

On the other hand, four export cables with a total length of 256 kilometres will carry 220 kV of electricity from offshore substations to onshore substations.

The cables will be laid on the seabed and buried, and the output of the offshore export cables to the shore will be carried out using the trenchless method, i.e. under the surface of the ground, without interfering with the coastal zone, including the beach, the developers said.

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With a total capacity of 1,440 MW, the Bałtyk II and Bałtyk III offshore wind farms will be located in the Polish exclusive economic zone of the Baltic Sea, approximately 37 and 22 kilometres from the coastline near Ustka and Łeba.

The two 720 MW offshore wind farms will feature Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbines with the first energy expected to flow from the project as early as 2027. The commercial stage of their use is planned a year later.

“A smooth transition from the planning stage of the Baltic II and III projects to the stage of their development is one of the necessary conditions for the success of the energy transition in Poland. Our two offshore wind farms, Bałtyk II and Bałtyk III, will provide renewable energy for more than two million households,” said Michał Jerzy Kołodziejczyk, President of the Management Board of Equinor in Poland.