In the Baltic Sea, off the island of Rügen, 50Hertz has completed the last of three cable systems for the Ostwind 2 offshore grid connection project after a four-week trial run, meaning that it will start continuous operation almost three months ahead of schedule.
The Arcadis Ost 1 (Parkwind) and Baltic Eagle (Iberdrola) wind farms are connected to Ostwind 2’s three cable systems. Arcadis Ost 1 has been fully integrated into the grid since late 2023. The first turbines brought online at the Baltic Eagle wind farm have also been supplying electricity for several months, although offshore installation work to complete the wind farm is still ongoing. From 2025 onward, once both wind farms are fully in service, the total output of up to 750 megawatts will be integrated into 50Hertz’s extra-high-voltage grid.
“50Hertz has delivered on time and on budget,” says Marco Nix, 50Hertz’s chief finance and investment officer. “After a planning, approval and realization period of around seven years, we have now achieved a precise landing. We’re approaching our other projects in the Baltic and the North Sea with the same goal in mind.
“This was a successful collaborative effort, for which we’d like to thank the relevant state and federal authorities, our cable manufacturer consortium comprising NKT and Boskalis, and our partners at Iberdrola and Parkwind, with whom we’re jointly building and operating the offshore platforms for the wind farms,” adds Nix.
Ostwind 2 consists of three 220-kV alternating voltage cable systems running from the two offshore platforms to the mainland. They largely follow the route of Ostwind 1, which connects the Wikinger and Arkona wind farms (in service since 2019) to the grid. Special vessels were used to lay about 95 kilometers of subsea cables on the bed of the Greifswald Bodden (Bay of Greifswald). The land route is only a few kilometers long, running from the coast to the Lubmin substation.
The new offshore projects — Ostwind 3 (Iberdrola’s Windanker offshore wind farm), Ostwind 4 (including TotalEnergies’ future offshore wind farm) and Bornholm Energy Island — will also be using this route. However, two new onshore substations are still needed. Construction of the Stilow substation for Ostwind 3 is already under way, while systems to convert direct current into alternating current are required in the Kemnitz/Brünzow survey area for the Ostwind 4 and Bornholm Energy Island projects.
