Siemens Energy, Dragados to build converters for 4 GW of German links

German transmission system operator Amprion GmbH has contracted Siemens Energy AG (ETR:ENR) and Spain’s Dragados Offshore to build the converter stations for two 2-GW offshore wind links in the North Sea.

The contract awarded to the consortium is worth over EUR 4 billion (USD 4.3bn) including a 10-year maintenance, Amprion said on Tuesday.

The links are being delivered on an accelerated schedule with LanWin1 to go live as early as 2029 instead of 2031 and LanWin3 as early as 2030 instead of 2033.

"We are working at high pressure to meet the accelerated scenarios of the German government to install 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030," said Peter Barth, managing director of Amprion Offshore GmbH.

Siemens Energy and Dragados Offshore will build one offshore and one onshore converter for each of the two links that will connect offshore wind farms to the grid in Wehrendorf, Lower Saxony and Westerkappeln, North Rhine-Westphalia. The LanWin1 and LanWin3 connections will be about 390 km (242 miles) long, inducing some 170 km and 160 km at sea, respectively.

The consortium was last year also awarded by Amprion the converters for the DolWin4 and BorWin4 connection.

Dragados Offshore is a subsidiary of Cobra IS, which is part of French engineering company Vinci SA (EPA:DG). The latter said that the two 2-GW converter platforms will be constructed at Dragados Offshore’s yard in Cadiz, Spain. The order will create more than 2,000 jobs and provide workload until 2029.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.075)

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