Work on the DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connections has started in Wietmarschen and Lingen, Amprion has confirmed.
The construction camp in Wietmarschen is currently being set up.
Amprion has commissioned the Tief4 consortium to carry out the work in the approximately 12km-long section.
It plans to connect offshore wind farms to the power grid with DolWin4 and BorWin4.
The lines end in Lingen and run parallel to the direct current connection A-Nord between Emden and Wietmarschen.
Approximately at the Ems-Vechte-West service area, the paths of A-Nord and the two offshore lines separate.
The civil engineering work from there to the converter station in Lingen will begin in mid-August.
The Tief4 working group commissioned by Amprion first sets up a cable protection pipe system into which the energy cables will later be pulled.
Two construction camps are already being set up in Wietmarschen on Rupingorter Kirchweg and on Hauptstrasse 100.
From there, the civil engineering companies supply the mobile construction site.
The pre-welding of the pipe strands for the cable protection pipe system will follow from the end of June.
Their laying begins in mid-August. This includes both sections in the closed construction method – especially in the horizontal directional drilling method – and sections in the open construction method.
The horizontal directional drilling method is used, for example, when crossing infrastructure or bodies of water.
Amprion only requires space for construction site set-up at the start and finish points of such a route.
In the open construction method, two trenches are built using excavators, into each of which two cable protection pipes are laid.
Amprion said it implements a proven soil protection concept, with the different soil layers removed separately, stored and then backfilled in the original order.
Two special crossings are on the agenda for 2025: In the first half of the year, the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the Ems with the FFH area there will be drilled in one go.
During the same period, Amprion is crossing the IC route between Münster and Emden in the area of the Hanekenfähr substation using pipe jacking, another method for laying pipes without trenches.
DolWin4 and BorWin4, which run largely in parallel, are both scheduled to go into operation in 2028.
From the North Sea wind farms, the cables initially run 60km and 125km out to sea. You pass under the island of Norderney and reach the coast in the Hilgenriedersiel area.
From there they run around 155km as underground cables towards the Hanekenfähr substation in Lingen (Ems), where Amprion will connect them to its transmission network.
The Emsland nuclear power plant there went offline in April 2023. Via DolWin4 and BorWin4, the resulting lost generation capacity will be replaced by 1.8GW of offshore wind energy.