The installation of the offshore substations (OSS) Darß and Zingst has been completed in the German Baltic Sea. The two OSSs form a central part of the grid connection infrastructure for the Gennaker offshore wind farm and represent one of the first major offshore construction milestones in the project's execution phase. The OSSs form an essential part of the OST-6-1 grid connection system, as executed under the management of 50Hertz and will collect the electricity generated by the offshore wind farm, transform it from 66 kV to 220 kV to transmission voltage level and facilitate its onward transmission to the German power grid.
The installation of the OSSs marks the creation of a key element of Gennaker’s future offshore infrastructure. The OSSs will serve as the connection between the wind turbine generators and the German transmission system, laying the foundation for the next offshore construction phases and the future delivery of renewable electricity to the grid.
The installation was carried out using the world’s largest offshore construction vessel Pioneering Spirit, as owned and operated by the Dutch marine contractor, Allseas. Measuring 382 m in length, 124 m in width, and capable of lifting struc-tures weighing up to 60 000 t, the vessel leads the group of the largest offshore construction and installation vessels in the world. Its deployment highlights the technical complexity and scale of the offshore construction works currently being executed as part of the Gennaker offshore wind farm project.
The Gennaker offshore wind farm is located approximately 15 km north of the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula off the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. With a planned installed capacity of 976.5 MW, the Gennaker offshore wind farm will, once completed, become the largest offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea. The offshore wind farm will comprise 63 wind turbine generators of the 15 MW class and is expected to generate approximately 3.8 TWh/y of renewable electricity, enough to meet the equivalent electricity demand of around one million households.
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