TenneT has carried out the sail-out of the 900MW offshore platform DolWin kappa from the Dragados Offshore shipyard in Cádiz, Spain.
The platform consists of a foundation structure (jacket) and a superstructure (topside) and will be installed in the German North Sea.
The two have a combined height of about 82 metres, so the platform will rise about 53 metres above the surface of the North Sea.
In addition, there will be a bridge that will connect DolWin kappa with DolWin beta (grid connection system DolWin2), which was already commissioned in 2016, in order to efficiently use the already existing infrastructure of the parent platform.
After three years of construction, the platform is now on board the transport barge Iron Lady and on its way to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
There, it will be reloaded onto the world’s largest service vessel, the Pioneering Spirit, and then shipped to the installation site.
Once there, DolWin kappa will be installed directly from the work boat.
After the platform is commissioned in 2023, it will convert the alternating current generated by offshore wind farms into direct current, which will then be transmitted to Hilgenriedersiel on the mainland via an approximately 45-kilometre-long subsea cable.
The grid connection system is scheduled to be commissioned in 2023 and provide renewable energy to over 1 million households.
TenneT chief operating officer Tim Meyerjürgens said: “TenneT is taking its mission seriously and advancing the grid expansion in the North Sea step by step.
“With the successful sail-out of the offshore platform DolWin kappa, we have taken the next important leap.
“DolWin6 is already the 13th offshore grid connection in our German portfolio and will bolster Europe’s urgently needed energy independence beginning in 2023.
“We also have our partners to thank for the fact that we are reaching this milestone on schedule.
“Working closely with our contractors Siemens Energy and Dragados Offshore, my colleagues took only three years to build the platform despite the enormous challenges posed by the pandemic.”