Baltic Power has signed contracts for the construction, supply and installation of offshore substations and foundations for a wind farm located in the Baltic Sea. According to the agreement, some of the components necessary for the foundation of the towers for the turbines will be manufactured in Poland. Later this year, Baltic Power will contract all the key components and services necessary for the planned start of the project in 2024. According to the schedule, the joint investment by ORLEN Group and Northland Power will begin producing zero-emission energy in 2026.
The development of offshore wind power is the foundation for building ORLEN Group’s carbon neutrality. Despite being a new area of our business, the Baltic Power wind farm is the most dynamically developed project in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea. As we enter the decisive phase of preparation, we are already contracting the key components needed for the project. We also want to use the experience we gained in the supply chain organization for future projects of this type. In total, we are applying for 11 licenses for offshore wind farms in Poland and want to implement similar projects in the Baltic countries, says Daniel Obajtek, CEO of PKN ORLEN.
The foundations of the wind turbines will be formed by steel piles weighing up to 2,400 tons and measuring up to 120 meters in height, which will be driven by specialized vessels into the seabed to a depth of up to 50 meters, states Baltic Power in a release. Foundations for all elements of the farm’s infrastructure will be provided by Steelwind Nordenham. Smulders, on the other hand, will be responsible for providing transition pieces to connect the foundations to the wind turbine towers installed on them. These are specialized steel structures, some of which will be built, among others, in plants located in Poland. Transportation and installation of the finished components at sea will be carried out by Van Oord, one of several companies operating in the global market that perform installation work for offshore wind farm components. Its fleet of more than 60 vessels also includes those built specifically for work in the Baltic Sea.
The acquisition of such important contracts represents a milestone for the Baltic Power project. Based on the experience of existing offshore wind farm projects in Germany and other parts of Europe, we know that Baltic Power will play an important role in Poland’s transition to clean energy production. For Northland, this is an excellent opportunity to, in cooperation with PKN ORLEN, strengthen our commitment to the European offshore market and support the creation of an offshore wind power hub in the Baltic Sea. We look forward to further development and further successes of the project, noted Christian Voelcker, acting Vice President for the construction of offshore structures Northland Power.
Offshore substations have also been secured by reservation agreements. This is a key component of maritime infrastructure. At approx. 130-square-kilometer area of the Baltic Power farm will stand two substations that will receive the energy produced by more than 70 turbines, with a minimum capacity of 14 MW, through a network of internal cables, and then transmit it via an export cable to an onshore substation. Each station is a steel structure, weighing approx. 2,500-tons, set on a foundation and rising around 20 meters above the water’s surface. Baltic Power announces that a consortium of Bladt Industries and Semco Maritime will be responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of the offshore substations. Bladt is a supplier, focused on the offshore wind sector, of components for offshore substations realized, among others, in plants on the Polish terrain. Semco is one of the leaders in the offshore wind sector, having successfully played a key role in the construction of more than 20 substations for offshore wind farms.
Baltic Power has consistently met the established schedule, and in doing so has chosen suppliers who can boast not only extensive experience, but also a willingness to carry out some of the work in Poland. For us as an investor, this is a very important argument. It translates into building a local value chain for the offshore wind sector. Each of these companies is already intensively looking for sub-suppliers in Poland, concludes Jaroslaw Broda, Board Member of Baltic Power.
The farm will be located approx. 23 km from the shore at the level of Łeba and Choczew. In June, the company was the first to complete geotechnical surveys of the seabed carried out in the farm area. In July, they signed, amongst other, reservation agreement for the transportation and installation of the turbines and securing one of 15 specialized installation vessels available worldwide. When completed in 2026, Baltic Power’s offshore wind farm will be able to power more than 1.5 million households with clean energy.
Source: Baltic Power
