STX France Hands Over Arkona Offshore Substation

STX France has organised a delivery ceremony for the Arkona offshore substation in Saint-Nazaire, France.

The 4,000-ton topside and the 1,000-ton jacket foundation were manufactured on behalf of E.ON and Statoil, the partners in the 385MW offshore wind project, and are expected to start their journey along the French coast and towards the installation site in the German Baltic Sea mid-March. The journey is expected to last for two weeks, weather depending.

Holger Matthiesen, Director of the Arkona Project, said: “With completing the topside within time and budget we reached an important milestone for the entire project. The cooperation of several European companies can be seen as a symbol of how the development of renewable energy can be achieved with combined forces.”

The offshore platform will be used simultaneously by the Arkona wind farm and the power grid operator 50Hertz.

The substation will collect the power generated by the wind farm’s 60 Siemens Gamesa 6MW turbines and transfer it to 50Hertz’s onshore substation in Lubmin via the 93-kilometre Ostwind 1 cable system.

The Arkona offshore wind farm, located 35 kilometres northeast of the island of Rügen, is scheduled for commissioning in 2019.