50Hertz has awarded a €2.9bn contract to a consortium comprising Dragados Offshore - a subsidiary of Cobra IS - and Siemens Energy to develop two electrical conversion stations for the LanWin 3 offshore grid connection project in the German North Sea.
The consortium has been tasked with the design, construction and installation of the electrical conversion stations.
The facilities are integral to the LanWin 3 offshore grid connection, which will link a North Sea wind farm to the mainland power network.
The project's offshore converter platform will convert the alternating current generated by the wind farm into high-voltage direct current (HVDC).
The conversion is crucial for minimising electrical losses during the lengthy transmission to land.
The wind farm is situated in the N-11.1 area, 120km northwest of Helgoland within Germany's Exclusive Economic Zone.
It will be connected to the mainland via a 200km submarine cable to Büsum, linked to an underground cable extending a further 15km to the Heide survey area.
The contract also encompasses the construction of an onshore platform in Schwerin in northeast Germany.
This facility will reconvert the direct current back into alternating current, which will then be fed into the southern electricity grid for transmission and distribution.
The offshore and onshore conversion platforms will offer a substantial 2GW capacity.
German transmission system operator 50Hertz will utilise HVDC transmission technology at a 525kV voltage level to establish the grid connection.
The manufacturing of the offshore converter platform will take place at the Dragados offshore yard in Andalusia, Spain.
Cobra IS has previously demonstrated its proficiency in the sector by delivering the DolWin 6 project in 2023.
With the current contract, the company will have constructed nine offshore power conversion platforms, totalling 16GW capacity.
In April 2024, 50Hertz announced that it will begin onshore construction for the Ostwind 3 grid connection, which will link the 300MW Windanker offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea to the mainland in Germany.
