Christoph Radke, COO Renewables at innogy SE, explains, “I am delighted to announce that we have paved the way for the construction of our Kaskasi offshore wind project, which will become our third offshore wind farm off the German coast. Our investment in this project underlines our ambitions to further grow in offshore wind in Europe and around the globe.“
innogy has signed a contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A. for the supply of 38 SG 8.0-167 DD Flex offshore wind turbines. Each turbine will have a capacity of close to 9 MW, a rotor diameter of 167 meters, and a total height of 191 meters. The wind turbines as well as the substation will be installed on monopile foundations built by Bladt Industries A/S.
Seaway 7 will commence installation of the foundations using a new installation method in third quarter of 2021 in moderate water depths of 18 to 25 meters. The so called “vibro pile driving” is an efficient alternative to the conventional method of hammering monopiles into the seabed. A research project led by innogy has shown that this improved installation method could deliver reduced installation times and noise emissions during construction. Kaskasi will be the first wind farm in the world using the vibro driving technique to install all monopile foundations to target penetration. In preparation for the offshore construction work, extensive seismic analysis has already been carried out.
Innogy also has contracted Bladt Industries A/S to construct, deliver and commission the offshore transformer substation. The offshore substation is the nerve center of the wind farm: the electricity produced by the individual wind turbines is bundled and transformed to transmission-level voltage. From the substation the grid operator transports the energy via the existing HelWin2 converter platform further to coast. The wind turbines will be connected with the Kaskasi substation via 33kV aluminium subsea cables with different cross sections. Installation of approximately 50 kilometres of cable will be carried out by Seaway 7. The cables will be manufactured by the Dutch company Twentsche Kabel Fabriek (TKF).
It is expected that the wind farm will start operations in summer 2022, the final date will be set in coordination with the offshore grid operator TenneT. Kaskasi offshore wind farm is to be connected to the same grid connection cluster as innogy's nearby Nordsee Ost wind farm. The HelWin2 converter platform required for connection to the grid has already been operational for several years. Synergies with Nordsee Ost wind farm will be utilized with regard to operations and maintenance work: For example the Kaskasi wind farm will be operated from the existing innogy service and operations station on Heligoland.
