The green future of offshore wind hubs and hybrid connections

EXPLORE

BORNHOLM ENERGY ISLAND

50Hertz and Energinet have joined forces to fully harvest the offshore wind potential held in the Baltic Sea, power the green transition in Germany and Denmark, and spearhead a new idea for connecting offshore wind farms across borders: the Bornholm Energy Island (BEI) project. This innovative and visionary project will connect multiple wind farms together via a single hub and transport the green electricity that they generate to consumers in both countries while providing transmission capacity for cross-border trading.

VISION & TECHNICAL FEATURES

Together, 50Hertz and Energinet want to establish a power hub on the island of Bornholm that is able to provide electricity to consumers in either country, depending on the market and demand in Germany, Denmark and Europe more widely. Electricity generated by the wind farms located off the coast of the island will be centralised at this hub and then converted into high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and transported via 525 kV HVDC sea and land cable systems to onshore substations in Zealand (in Denmark) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (in Germany). In addition, the BEI project will enable the local community on the island to be connected to both Zealand and continental Europe.  

Cooperation between countries is the way forward

50Hertz and Energinet are pioneering innovators. BEI will pave the way to a future in which offshore wind energy is no longer harvested by individual countries alone. Instead, in line with the offshore wind potential held by different countries and electricity demand in these, two or more countries will cooperate to efficiently integrate the green electricity generated by offshore wind farms into their energy systems.

We at 50Hertz and Energinet hold a significant amount of expertise in feeding electricity from offshore wind farms into our power grids. The Kriegers Flak - Combined Grid Solution (KF CGS), our joint project which has been fully operational since 2021, laid the foundations for making hybrid interconnectors a reality in both the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. We will continue to use our know-how to implement ever-evolving, more complex and more efficient on- and offshore energy hubs.

NEWS & EVENTS

50Hertz informs about BEI at the Wind & Maritime Rostock conference

 

At the 12th Future Wind & Maritime Conference in Rostock (Germany), the new 50Hertz programme director for the Bornholm Energy Island (BEI) project, Dettmar Knieriem, presented the main features and advantages of this joint German-Danish project to an interested audience of experts. BEI will act as a hub for 3 GW of offshore wind energy in the future. On the Baltic Sea Island, the electricity will be converted from AC and DC voltage and then transmitted via powerful 525 kV sea and land cables both to Germany and to the Danish mainland.

 

Knieriem explained that the tender process for key components had already started and that a market dialogue had also taken place in early June with potential suppliers and service providers for cables and converter facilities. The tendering process started in the first quarter of 2023, with the awards taking place one year later. The schedule envisages that the construction of the converter plants in Germany and Denmark could possibly begin in 2026.

MARKET DIALOGUE

Bornholm Energy Island is one of two Energy Islands being planned in Danish waters as a result of the Danish Climate Agreement adopted by the Danish Parliament in June 2020. Bornholm Energy Island will have a production capacity of 3 GW.

 

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