Poland’s ‘most advanced’ offshore wind project officially gets underway
Photo Credit: Baltic Power
Construction has commenced on the onshore substation for the 1.2 GW Baltic Power offshore wind farm in Poland. The substation, which is in the Choczewo municipality, will receive electricity from offshore substations located almost 30km’s away.
The 7km onshore cable will be almost all routed underground, with coastal areas utitlising directional drilling to route the cable at a depth of around 10km underground. Directional drilling is a technique to access underground oil or gas reserves by drilling in a non-vertical direction, which can help lessen the environmental impact of drilling. This cable installation method follows the project's plans to minimise environmental impact and avoid locations with natural resources.
Offshore installation is anticipated to commence in 2024, with the project planned to start commercial operations in 2026. A consortium made up of ORLEN and Northland Power will build the wind farm, which will consist of 76 turbines with a unit capacity of 15 MW and a height of over 200m. The wind farm will operate in an area of approximately 130 m2 and be 23km away from the coast of Choczewo and Łeba. Once completed, the farm will be able to supply renewable energy to more than 1.5 million households. At the time of print, the Baltic Power consortium claims it is the “most advanced” offshore wind farm construction project in Poland.
This wind farm is the first part of a larger development of offshore wind in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone of the Baltic Sea. Current plans by the Polish State National Energy Policy outline the development of offshore wind energy with a capacity of around 5.9GW in 2030 and up to 11GW in 2040.
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