RWE is progressing with the development of its first offshore wind farm off the Polish coast. The company has received a positive environmental decision for the construction of the connection infrastructure for its F.E.W. Baltic II wind farm. The project is located in the central part of the Polish Baltic Sea and will have an installed capacity of 350 megawatts. The planned connection infrastructure will enable RWE to transfer the energy produced by the wind farm turbines at sea to the transmission grid on land. The validated environmental decision was issued by the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Gdansk.
Grzegorz Chodkowski, Vice President Offshore Development Poland, RWE Offshore Wind: “This decision is an important milestone on the way to realising RWE’s first offshore wind farm off the Polish coast, a strategic growth market for our company. We will now complete the many months of environmental preparation phase and continue the work required to obtain construction permits.”
Route of the connection infrastructure of F.E.W. Baltic II wind farm
The planned grid connection is expected to be implemented in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone and in Polish territorial waters. The submarine cable section crossing the coastal zone is planned to be drilled using trenchless technology. In the next step, a sea-land coupler is expected to be installed on land to connect the submarine cable to the land cable. The planned infrastructure will then run through the municipalities of Ustka and Słupsk to RWE’s onshore substation. From here, the energy produced by the wind farm will be transmitted via an overhead line to the planned SE Krzemienica substation of the national transmission system operator PSE. The length of the transmission corridor will be up to 71 kilometres in the offshore part and up to 19 kilometres in the onshore part.
After its commissioning at the end of this decade, F.E.W. Baltic II will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of around 350,000 Polish households.
Important milestones for F.E.W. Baltic II offshore project
F.E.W. Baltic II has already reached a number of important milestones. In 2021 the Polish Energy Regulatory Office has granted a Contract for Difference (CfD), subject to approval by the European Commission. Seabed surveys have been successfully completed and both geophysical and initial geotechnical surveys have been carried out by Polish contractors. The project received the Environmental Decision for the seabed area and is at an advanced stage of obtaining the remaining necessary administrative decisions and permits.
Source: RWE
