Baltic Power, a joint venture between Poland’s PKN Orlen and Canada’s Northland Power has signed contracts for the manufacture, delivery and installation of the offshore substations and foundations for its wind farm project located in the Baltic Sea.
By the end of this year, Baltic Power will secure contracts for all the main elements of the farm’s infrastructure and services necessary to timely start the construction, scheduled for 2024. As per the schedule, the joint-venture project will commence generating zero-emission energy in 2026.
“For the ORLEN Group, offshore wind energy is a pillar of the implemented strategy thanks to which we will achieve carbon neutrality,” saidDaniel Obajtek, President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board. “Even though it is a new area of our business, the Baltic Power project is currently the most dynamically developing investment in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea. Entering the key phase of preparations, we are signing contracts for the main components of the farm’s infrastructure necessary to carry out the project. The experience we have gained in building the supply chain for Baltic Power will be leveraged in similar future projects. We are seeking to be awarded a total of 11 licences for the construction of offshore wind farms in Poland, and we will look for opportunities to implement such projects also in the Baltics.”
“Securing these supplier contracts mark major project milestones for the Baltic Power project,” added Christian Voelcker, Interim Vice President of Offshore Construction of the Northland Power. “Leveraging our expertise from already established offshore wind resources in Germany and other parts of Europe, Baltic Power will play a significant role in Poland’s clean energy transition for the long-term.”
Another scope of investment that has been secured through selected supplier contracts concerns the offshore substations. This is a key component of the offshore infrastructure. Over around a 130 square-kilometre area of the Baltic Power wind farm, two substations will be built, which via an internal cable network will receive the energy produced by more than 70 turbines with a minimum capacity of 14 megawatts (MW) and then transmit this via export cables to the onshore substation.
The wind farm will be built some 23 kilometres off the shore, near Łeba and Choczewo. In June this year, the company was the first to complete geotechnical surveys of the seabed in the area of the farm. In July, the company signed, among other things, a reservation agreement for the transport and installation of the turbines, thus securing one of the 15 specialised installation vessels available worldwide. When completed in 2026, the Baltic Power offshore wind farm will be able to supply up to more than 1,5 million households with clean energy.
