New offshore wind installation hub to service Baltic Sea region
ORLEN Neptun, part of the ORLEN Group, has launched an offshore wind farm installation terminal in Świnoujście, Pomerania. The company claims this is the first facility of its kind in Poland and one of the most advanced in Europe.
The terminal will serve as a key base for ORLEN's Phase 2 offshore wind projects and will also be available to external operators.
ORLEN Neptun has signed its first long-term contract with Ocean Winds, a Spanish-French consortium of offshore wind developers. The plan is that the Świnoujście terminal will support the installation of several dozen wind turbines per year.
The terminal, which will be manned by several dozen staff, has been designed to accommodate the largest vessels, including jackup and heavy-lift ships, used for installing offshore wind turbines with a capacity of about 15 MW.
The terminal supports the unloading, stacking and ship loading of components used in the construction of wind farms, including monopile foundations, towers, blades, nacelles and farm cabling elements. Additionally, the terminal infrastructure enables the reception of offshore substation topsides weighing up to 24,000 tonnes.
ORLEN says the facility will primarily support the installation of components for its offshore wind projects, Baltic East and future developments. The terminal will also be commercially available to other operators executing projects in German, Swedish or Danish waters.
Under the contract with Ocean Winds, ORLEN Neptun will lease nearly the entire terminal area. It will be used to support the construction of the BC-Wind offshore wind farm, located about 150 nautical miles (about 228 km) from the port in Świnoujście. BC-Wind is Ocean Winds’ first project in the Baltic Sea.
The terminal will be used for the delivery, storage and initial preparation of foundations, which will then be transported to the installation site. Świnoujście will also serve as the loading point for components onto specialized installation vessels. Cargo handling and port services will be provided by local contractors with international experience.
“Świnoujście will be our base for executing future offshore wind projects, in which Polish capital will play a major role with close to 50% participation. We’ve already signed a long-term contract with one of the global offshore leaders, Ocean Winds, and secured agreements that will allow us to utilize existing infrastructure for storing turbine components,” said Ireneusz Fąfara, CEO and president of the management board of ORLEN.
In late May, ORLEN announced that Poland’s first operations and maintenance base dedicated to offshore wind farms became operational in Łeba. The port infrastructure, built from the ground up, will support the Baltic Power offshore wind farm currently under construction by ORLEN in partnership with Canada’s Northland Power.
Poland’s first offshore wind farm on the Baltic Sea is scheduled for completion next year.
Over the next decade, the ORLEN Group says it aims to achieve 12.8 GW of installed capacity in renewable energy sources, including about 6.4 GW in offshore wind farms.
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