Heerema Marine Contractors installed the topside for the offshore substation that will collect and transform the electricity generated by Iberdrola’s Baltic Eagle Offshore Wind Farm in the German Baltic sea.
The offshore substation (OSS) is being installed and ran by 50Hertz, the transmission system operator in north-eastern Germany. 50Hertz contracted Heerema for the transport and installation of the substation. The approximately 2,900 T jacket foundation was installed in October 2022. The topside, featuring a closed multi-storey module of five decks, has an estimated net weight of around 4,200 tonnes.
Iberdrola now starts the offshore phase to make the OSS ready for energization. The next phase is the installation of the monopiles to which the wind turbines are attached with transition pieces. The monopiles have been manufactured by the regional company EEW SPC from Rostock. Van Oord will transport and install the foundations.
Once the wind farm is connected to the grid, the electricity generated by its wind turbines will be delivered via inter-array cables to the offshore substation where it is then transformed from 66 kV to 220 kV and transmitted via two high voltage subsea cables across the 90 km distance to the landing point at Lubmin into the 50Hertz transmission grid. The 220 kV submarine cables were already laid in 2021 and 2022 and deposited on the seabed at a safe distance from the platform position. The next step will be to move the two cable ends into the transformer platform in the second quarter of this year.
Baltic Eagle
The Baltic Eagle Offshore Wind Farm is located 30 kilometres to the northeast of Rügen island off the coast of Pomerania in Germany. The wind farm will feature 50 MHI Vestas V174 wind turbines of 9.53-MW on monopiles, good for an annual production of 1.9 TWh. With a total installed capacity of 476 MW, it is Iberdrola’s second major offshore wind farm project. The wind farm is planned for commissioning at the end of 2024.
Baltic Eagle is part of Iberdrola´s so-called “Baltic Hub” in the Baltic Sea. Together with Wikinger (350 MW) and the planned Windanker (300 MW), the Hub will have an installed capacity of over 1.1 GW by 2026.
