The DolWin beta offshore converter platform has reached its last vacation spot within the North Sea the place it should quickly function a important hyperlink between one of many world’s largest offshore wind farm clusters and the German energy grid.

The 320-kilovolt converter station has a 916 megawatts (MW) energy transmission capability, making it the world’s strongest set up of its form and sufficient to energy greater than 1,000,000 households with clear vitality.

The offshore converter station is a part of the DolWin2 challenge, which might be operated by transmission system operator TenneT and can join offshore wind farms within the North Sea’s DolWin cluster, at the moment the biggest offshore wind farm cluster worldwide, with the German grid. The predominant operate of the station might be to transform the electrical energy generated by the offshore wind farms from alternating present (AC) into high-voltage direct present (HVDC) for environment friendly and dependable transmission to the mainland.

The full platform together with substructure weighs round 23,000 tons and is round 100 meters lengthy, 70 meters vast and 100 meters tall. It was transported final yr from Dubai, the place it was constructed, to Aibel’s shipyard in Haugesund, Norway the place the platform was outfitted. The platform reached its last vacation spot final week on the DolWin cluster, 45 kilometers off the German coast.

Although harking back to a semi-submersible, the DolWin beta makes use of a self-installing gravity-based construction (GBS) idea, the place the platform is slowly ballasted right down to the seabed by filling the six columns with water, which can later get replaced by gravel to completely safe the platform on the website.

Bonus video from the set up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2azGfQSrm8k

All photographs courtesy ABB

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