RWE is developing F.E.W. Baltic II, one of the first offshore wind farms in the Polish Baltic Sea, and has selected Atlantique Offshore Energy, the marine energy business unit of French company Chantiers de l’Atlantique, for engineering, procuring, constructing, installing and commissioning of the electrical offshore substation.
Once fully operational, the 350 MW wind farm will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent needs of around 350,000 Polish households.
“With selecting Chantiers de l’Atlantique, we have passed the next milestone on the way to realizing our first Polish offshore wind farm,” says Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of offshore wind at RWE Renewables. “Poland is one of the most attractive, emerging offshore markets in Europe. With our F.E.W. Baltic II project we will contribute significantly to Poland’s green energy transition and accelerate the development of the local supply chain.”
The substation will collect and export the power generated by the offshore wind turbines through high voltage submarine cables, while remotely controlling and monitoring the operation of the wind farm. Design activities have already started, with early permitting activities expected this year and full installation of the substation scheduled for 2025. After the successful delivery of the Arkona offshore substation in 2018, this is the second time that Chantiers de l’Atlantique and RWE have joined forces on an offshore wind project.
For the execution of this project, RWE can rely on the expertise and capabilities of Chantiers de l’Atlantique teams and its subcontractors in France. In addition, RWE and Chantiers de l’Atlantique will rely upon a wide range of Polish companies for engineering and supply of equipment and services. This cooperation will allow the French and Polish offshore wind value chain to gather momentum and play an important role in the installation of the substation in Polish waters.
“We are very pleased and proud to welcome back RWE, a worldwide leader in our industry, and to execute for them their first complete project for an Electrical Offshore Substation in Poland,” states Frédéric Grizaud, director of Atlantique Offshore Energy. “Our continued effort to improve the overall competitiveness of our substations demonstrates again our positive contribution to the European energy transition.”
Through the F.E.W. Baltic II project, RWE will contribute significantly to the local economy as well as to the green energy transition in Poland – one of its strategic core markets in Europe. RWE already has a well-established onshore wind business in the country and is continuously diversifying its renewables portfolio by investing in solar projects in Poland.
In 2021, RWE received the environmental permit for the F.E.W. Baltic II offshore project. It was the first Environmental Impact Assessment for a Polish offshore wind project, which has been assessed under a cross-border procedure (ESPOO convention), with participation of Danish and Swedish stakeholders. Also last year, the Polish Energy Regulatory Office has awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) to the project, which confirms that RWE’s project has been selected for the first phase of Poland’s ambitious offshore wind build-out program. The CfD award is subject to final approval from the European Commission, which is expected in 2022.
