Final investment decision for 342 MW offshore project in Germany
Innogy SE has made the final investment decision for the construction of the 342 MW wind farm, which is to be built 35 kilometers north of the island of Helgoland, off the German coast.
The contracts for the delivery of all important components have already been signed. The total contract value for wind turbines and foundations, the offshore transformer station and the cabling of the wind farm is over EUR500 million (US$539.5 million).
Innogy has concluded a contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA for the delivery of 38 SG 8.0-167 DD Flex offshore wind turbines. Each turbine will have an installed capacity of up to 9 MW. The rotor diameter is 167 meters, the total height is 191 meters. The wind turbines and the transformer station will be built on monopile foundations from Bladt Industries A / S. Seaway 7 will begin installing the foundations in the third quarter of 2021 using an innovative process in moderate water depths of 18 to 25 meters. The vibratory pile driving technique, the so-called “Vibro Pile Driving”, is an efficient alternative to the conventional hammer technique. A research project led by innogy has shown that this optimized installation process has the potential to reduce design times and noise emissions. Kaskasi will be the first wind farm worldwide to use this vibratory ram technology to drive all monopile foundations to the final depth in the seafloor. Extensive seismic analyzes have already been carried out to prepare for the construction work at sea.
Innogy placed the order for the delivery of the components, the construction and the commissioning of the offshore substation with Bladt Industries A/S. The wind turbines will be connected to various nodes via 33 kV submarine cables and then to the Kaskasi substation. For this purpose, around 50 kilometers of cable are laid from Seaway 7. The cables are produced by Twentsche Kabel Fabriek (TKF) from the Netherlands.
The wind farm is scheduled to go online in summer 2022, and the final termination will be coordinated with the network operator TenneT. The Kaskasi offshore wind farm is to be connected to the same grid connection cluster as the neighboring Innogy Nordsee Ost wind farm. The HelWin2 converter platform required for grid connection has been in operation for several years. In terms of maintenance and operation, synergies are to be leveraged with the Nordsee Ost wind farm: For example, the Kaskasi wind farm is to be operated from the existing Innogy service station on Helgoland. After full commissioning, the Kaskasi offshore wind farm will supply around 400,000 households with green electricity per year.
