Ground breaking ceremony for Amprion’s first offshore grid connections
Construction work has begun on the DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection systems.
On Norderney’s North Beach, Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Olaf Lies and island mayor Frank Ulrichs symbolically broke ground with employees of Amprion. Representatives of Lower Saxony authorities as well as organizations from the fields of nature conservation and tourism took part in the ceremony.
The drilling to cross below the island of Norderney marks the start of construction work for Amprion’s first offshore projects, which are scheduled to go into operation in 2028 and 2029: DolWin4 and BorWin4 connect North Sea wind farms with the onshore transmission grid. The transmitted power corresponds to the demand of a major city like Hamburg.
“The expansion of offshore wind energy is a central pillar of our energy transition. Lower Saxony plays a special role in this. We are becoming the gateway and hub for climate-friendly energy for all of Germany. Particularly in view of the current major energy policy challenges, we need not only expansion, but also grid connection. That’s why dates like today send out an encouraging signal. Because progress is also being made with grid connection. That’s why I’m particularly pleased to be able to congratulate Amprion on the first construction activities in the offshore sector. We need wind power in particular to ensure a free, clean and independent energy supply,” says Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Olaf Lies.
The DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection systems, which run largely in parallel, are among the most important energy transition projects in Germany. They are scheduled to go into operation in 2028 and 2029. From the North Sea wind farms, the cables will initially run 60 and 125 kilometers at sea. They cross below the island of Norderney and reach the coast in the Hilgenriedersiel. From there, they run for around 155 kilometers as underground cables toward the Hanekenfähr substation in Lingen (Ems), where Amprion will connect them to its transmission network.
There, the Emsland nuclear power plant will be taken off the grid at the end of 2022. The generation capacity will be replaced by 1.8 gigawatts of offshore wind energy via DolWin4 and BorWin4. This is roughly equivalent to the demand of a major city like Hamburg with 1.8 million inhabitants.
Source and image: Amprion
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