The offshore substation topside built for the Arkona offshore wind farm has left STX France’s yard in Saint Nazaire and is now en route to the German Baltic Sea.
The 1,000-ton jacket foundation for the substation, also built by STX France, had left the yard three days prior to the 4,000-ton topside. The journey is expected to last about two weeks, weather depending.
STX France manufactured the substation on behalf of E.ON and Statoil, the partners on the 385MW offshore wind project located some 35 kilometres northeast of the island of Rügen. The wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2019.
The substation will be used simultaneously by the Arkona wind farm and the power grid operator 50Hertz.
It 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.