Dock laying for offshore converter platform DolWin gamma

On 30 January, the dock laying of a steel element of the offshore converter platform DolWin gamma took place in Warnemünde as scheduled. The placing of a 200-tonne section marked another milestone in the production of the HVDC*-platform.

As general contractor, Alstom had placed an order with Nordic Yards in February 2013 for the construction of the offshore platform for the DolWin3 project run by the Dutch transmission system operator TenneT. The offshore platform DolWin gamma is already the fourth platform manufactured by Nordic Yards. The construction started in October 2014. In 2017, the converter platform will be installed in the North Sea. It will be the core of the grid connection project DolWin3 in the south-western part of the German North Sea: it will convert 900 MW of electricity from AC to DC and transmit it to the Dörpen onshore converter station via sea and land cable over a distance of 162 km. In Dörpen, the power will be converted back to AC, fed into TenneT´s onshore transmission grid and supplied to the end users.
 
“With today´s dock-laying, we are happy to have completed one further important step in the construction of DolWin gamma. For us, this high-tech platform is another important reference in our offshore wind business. The development and construction of both DC and AC offshore platforms is an essential focus of our company´s strategy”, said Andreas Amelang, Senior Vice President sales & Project Design at Nordic Yards.
 
For the first time, the complete basic and detailed design as well as the transport and the installation in the North Sea belong to the scope of delivery of Nordic Yards, in addition to the construction of the platform.
 
The platform´s topside will be manufactured in Warnemünde, its foundation is produced in split-construction at the sites in Wismar and Stralsund. The topside, which is as tall as an eleven-storey residential building, houses the Alstom HVDC and AC technology, workshops, living areas and machine rooms.
 
With four out of a total of nine constructed or currently being constructed converter platforms worldwide, Nordic Yards produces more platforms than any other shipyard – including e. g. the offshore converter platforms BorWin beta, HelWin alpha and SylWin alpha.