The Italian cable systems group Prysmian Group has secured three contracts worth €5bn with the German power transmission system operator (TSO) Amprion for the two offshore grid connection systems BalWin1 and BalWin2 and for the underground cable project DC34 in Germany. The package deal includes approximately 4,400 km of ±525 kV HVDC cables and DMR (Dedicated Metallic Return) cables, of which around 3,400 km consists of land cables and 1,000 km comprises submarine cables.
The BalWin1 and BalWin2 are expected to transmit up to 2 GW of offshore wind energy produced in areas 9 and 10 of the German North Sea, to their corresponding grid connection point, while the DC34 - as part of the Rhein-Main-Link - should connect the substation in Lower Saxony to a second substation in Hesse to transmit up to 2GW of wind energy to consumers in the Rhine-Main metropolitan area.
Germany targets 70 GW of offshore wind energy by 2045 (8.1 GW as of 2022).