The construction of the DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection projects in northern Germany has commenced, Amprion said on 18 June.
Work on the DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connections, which will transport power from offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the mainland, has started in Lingen and Wietmarschen, where construction camps are currently being set up, according to Amprion.
The lines end in Lingen and run parallel to the A-Nord direct current connection between Emden and Wietmarschen.
At the Ems-Vechte-West area, A-Nord and the two offshore lines separate, and the civil engineering work from there to the converter station in Lingen is planned to begin in mid-August.
The Tief4 consortium, commissioned by the transmission system operator (TSO) Amprion, will first build a cable protection pipe system into which the power cables will later be pulled.
From the end of June, the pipe strings for the cable protection pipe system will be pre-welded, with installation expected to commence in mid-August.
This process includes sections built using the closed construction method, primarily the horizontal directional drilling method, as well as sections using the open construction method.
The German TSO placed the main orders in 2022, with Siemens Energy and Dragados Offshore selected to supply the converter platform and Prysmian to deliver the submarine cables. The same suppliers have been selected for the BorWin4 grid connection.
The platforms for both offshore grid connection projects will be installed by Allseas, with the installation work planned to commence in 2027.
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The DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection systems, which run largely in parallel, are among the most important energy transition projects in Germany, Amprion said. From the North Sea wind farms, the cables will initially run 60 kilometres and 125 kilometres at sea.
They cross below the island of Norderney and reach the coast in the Hilgenriedersiel. From there, they run for around 155 kilometres as underground cables toward the Hanekenfähr substation in Lingen, where Amprion will connect them to its transmission network.
There, the Emsland nuclear power plant went offline in April 2023. The resulting loss of generation capacity will be replaced by 1.8 GW of offshore wind energy via BorWin4 and DolWin4.
Both offshore grid connection projects are scheduled to go into operation in 2028.