ABB’s $1 Billion Offshore Wind Power Link Connects the North Sea to Germany
Let’s hear it for the new ABB Offshore wind power project in the North Sea. For this project can generate enormous amounts of clean electricity. However, generating that energy is only half the challenge.
You still have to move it from turbines far out at sea to homes, businesses and industries on land.
That is exactly what the ABB offshore wind project is set out to accomplish in 2011.
The global power and automation company won an order worth roughly $1 billion from Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT. The ABB offshore wind project will create a massive offshore power connection. That’s an interconnection between North Sea wind farms and Germany’s mainland electricity grid.
At the time, it represented the largest power transmission order in ABB’s history. More importantly, it demonstrated how advanced transmission technology could help turn offshore wind into a major source of dependable renewable electricity.
A Massive Offshore Wind Connection
The ABB offshore wind project is centered on the DolWin2 offshore grid connection in Germany’s North Sea.
ABB planned to design, engineer, supply and install the offshore wind platform, offshore and onshore converter stations and the underwater and underground cable network needed to move the electricity.
The system was rated at more than 900 megawatts.
Once completed, ABB estimated that the offshore wind power connection could deliver enough wind-generated electricity to supply more than 1.5 million households.
That represented far more than another ABB offshore wind power farm project.
Instead, it was major electrical infrastructure designed specifically around renewable energy.
Why Germany Needed an Offshore Superhighway
Germany was rapidly expanding renewable energy during this period.
Wind power already played an important role. Yet some of Europe’s strongest and most consistent wind resources sit offshore in the North Sea.
That’s great for producing electricity.
However, those turbines can operate dozens of miles from the coast.
Therefore, Germany needed a reliable way to transport enormous amounts of electricity across long distances while keeping transmission losses low.
ABB’s offshore wind power solution relied on high-voltage direct current, or HVDC.
HVDC can become especially valuable when electricity must travel long distances through submarine cables. Instead of attempting to send conventional alternating current all the way from offshore turbines to the mainland, the system converts the electricity for more efficient transmission.
How ABB’s Offshore wind powered HVDC Light System Worked
Electricity generated by the ABB offshore wind power turbines begins as alternating current.
First, that electricity travels to an offshore converter platform.
ABB’s HVDC Light technology then converts the electricity from alternating current into high-voltage direct current.
Next, the electricity travels toward Germany through approximately 135 kilometers of underwater and underground cables.
Once the electricity reaches the mainland converter station, the system converts it back into alternating current.
Finally, the ABB offshore wind powered electricity enters Germany’s transmission network.
It sounds simple when described in a few steps. Yet accomplishing this offshore at such enormous power levels required sophisticated converters, cable technology, control systems and marine engineering.
ABB also designed the system to keep electrical losses below approximately 1% per converter station.
That efficiency matters.
Every percentage point of electricity saved means more renewable power reaches consumers instead of disappearing as transmission losses.
More Than 900 Megawatts of ABB Offshore Wind Power
The project was originally designed to connect the 400-MW Gode Wind II wind farm along with additional offshore wind generation.
Together, those projects required a transmission system capable of handling more than 900 MW.
At the time, ABB described the offshore wind powered installation as the world’s largest offshore HVDC system of its kind.
The company also pushed cable technology forward.
Its ±320-kilovolt system represented an important advance for voltage-source-converter HVDC transmission using extruded cables.
In other words, offshore wind was no longer simply about bigger turbines.
The supporting electrical infrastructure was evolving just as rapidly.
Offshore Wind Needs a Strong Grid
This is one of the most important lessons from the project.
Building renewable generation without expanding transmission creates a bottleneck.
A wind turbine can produce clean electricity. Yet that energy provides little value if the electrical network cannot carry it where people need it.
Consequently, projects like DolWin2 became essential pieces of Germany’s broader energy transition.
They effectively created offshore renewable-energy highways.
Instead of connecting one small generator to the grid, these systems could collect electricity from multiple offshore wind farms and move huge blocks of renewable power toward population centers.
That model has become increasingly important as the ABB offshore wind powered projects have definitely grown larger.
Lowering Carbon Emissions
ABB originally estimated that the offshore wind powered connection could help avoid more than three million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year by enabling wind generation to replace fossil-fuel-based electricity.
Of course, actual emissions reductions depend on which generating resources renewable electricity displaces.
Still, the fundamental environmental benefit remains significant.
Offshore wind produces electricity without burning coal, oil or natural gas during operation.
Furthermore, transmitting that renewable electricity efficiently increases the amount of clean power available to the grid.
The environmental story therefore extends far beyond the turbines themselves.
Converters matter.
Transmission cables matter.
Substations matter.
Grid planning matters too.
Every part of the system must work together.
ABB Was Building on Earlier Offshore Wind Powered Projects
The \$1 billion project wasn’t ABB’s first move into German offshore wind power.
The company had already worked on the BorWin1 offshore connection and the 800-MW DolWin1 project.
DolWin1 ultimately entered service and connected offshore wind farms about 75 kilometers from Germany’s coastline to the transmission grid.
ABB completed and handed over that 800-MW system to TenneT in 2015. The completed connection could supply electricity equivalent to the needs of roughly one million households.
So the technology announced during this early period did not remain on a drawing board.
It became real infrastructure in the North Sea.
Offshore Wind Changed the Meaning of Renewable Energy
Renewable energy was once frequently discussed in relatively small terms.
A solar array here.
A rooftop system there.
Maybe a small wind turbine.
Projects like these North Sea connections changed that conversation.
We’re talking about renewable energy infrastructure operating at the scale traditionally associated with major power plants.
Hundreds of megawatts could move through a single connection.
Millions of households could potentially receive electricity supported by offshore wind.
Moreover, enormous investments were being made not only in generation but also in the electrical backbone needed to support it.
That’s when renewable energy starts becoming an infrastructure story instead of simply an environmental story.
Conclusion: The Grid Makes Offshore Wind Possible
The turbines tend to get the photographs.
However, transmission systems make large-scale offshore wind possible.
ABB’s roughly $1 billion North Sea project highlighted that reality more than a decade ago.
Wind farms could generate massive amounts of clean electricity offshore. Meanwhile, HVDC technology could move that electricity efficiently toward Germany’s mainland grid.
The result created a blueprint for something much bigger.
Clean-energy generation and modern transmission must grow together.
As countries continue adding offshore wind, solar power, battery storage and other renewable resources, grid infrastructure will remain one of the most important pieces of the energy transition.
After all, producing clean electricity is only the beginning.
Getting that electricity where people need it is what turns renewable energy into a working power system.
Sources
- ABB — DolWin2 renewable-energy connection and maintenance
ABB: Renewable Energy Connection in the North Sea - ABB — DolWin1 Offshore Wind Energy Link
ABB: Germany’s DolWin1 Offshore Wind Energy Link - ABB — HVDC Technology and Germany’s Energy Transition
ABB: Technology Helps Integrate Renewables in Germany
