The 900 MW DolWin Epsilon offshore converter platform has left Seatrium’s shipyard in Singapore and is heading towards Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, Norway, where it is expected to arrive in the second half of December.
After three years of construction and with more than ten million manhours, the heavy transport vessel Mighty Servant 1 has “piggybacked” the platform and set off on its journey towards Norway.
Once there, Aibel and Hitachi Energy will install the final technical equipment, including the HVDC converter and transformers, prior to commissioning.
Next summer, the platform will be transported self-floating and installed at its final destination in the German North Sea, according to the Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO), TenneT.
The platform is 82 metres long, 73 metres wide, and 84 metres high. The topside and the substructure of the platform weigh 11,450 and 12,100 tonnes, respectively.
Around 600 kilometres of cable were installed on DolWin Epsilon, according to TenneT.
A special feature of the platform is the gravity-based foundation which has only been used so far for DolWin beta .
The DolWin Epsilon offshore transformer platform is part of DolWin5 offshore grid in Germany. The platform will have a transmission capacity of 900 MW, equivalent to supplying 1.1 million households with green wind power.
With the DolWin5 grid connection, for the first time, a 66 kV direct connection is being used, said TenneT.
Compared to previous projects, a wind farm substation is no longer required and, instead, the wind power generated off the coast of Lower Saxony, Germany, will be transmitted directly as three-phase current to TenneT’s DolWin Epsilon converter platform, said the TSO.
The elimination of the wind farm’s transformer station not only minimises costs, but also construction time and interference with the marine ecosystem, according to TenneT.
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“Following the recent commissioning of DolWin6, this project is now also on the home straight – this is of enormous importance as the grid expansion in the North Sea must be accelerated in order to achieve our expansion targets in Germany,” said Tim Meyerjürgens, COO of TenneT.
“With DolWin5 and the elimination of the transformer station, we can demonstrate that we are pursuing and implementing more efficient solutions. This is only an intermediate step before we set new standards with the 2GW program.”