A consortium consisting of Dragados Offshore – a subsidiary of Cobra IS – and Siemens has won a contract to design, build and install two transformer platforms in the North Sea. German Amprion Offshore, which is to establish several offshore wind farms in the North Sea, has tendered the task.
Converts alternating current from offshore wind turbines
The offshore platforms will collect the alternating current generated by the offshore wind farms and convert it into high voltage direct current (HVDC). The direct current will then be converted to alternating current at land stations approximately 400 km away. The land stations are also covered by the contract. In total, the contract has a value of almost €4 billion.
The platforms themselves will be constructed at Dragados Offshore’s yard in Cádiz, Spain. It will generate over 2,000 jobs until 2029.
Capacity of four GigaWatts
With transmission and transport capacity of two GigaWatts each, i.e. a total of four GigaWatts, the platforms will be able to supply a large city with four million people, such as Berlin. The two platforms will be among the first with such a large capacity to be developed in Northern Europe. The platforms are expected to be ready for use in 2029 and 2030 respectively.
The project is part of Germany’s energy transition plan. It includes, among other things, a larger offshore wind turbine network.
Will supply technical hardware for the Fehmarn tunnel
Cobra IS, in partnership with the technology and software company SICE, has won the contract to supply the electronic and technical hardware for the Fehmarn Tunnel. That contract has a value of approximately €523 million.
As of the first of January, Cobra IS was taken over by the French contractor and infrastructure giant Vinci.
It stays in the Fehmarn family
Vinci is by far the largest of the companies in the Fehmarn Link Contractors (FLC) consortium, with a market value of over €58,7 billion on the stock exchange. In the same connection, it is part of the story that Vinci also owns 12 percent of the shares in the Belgian company CFE, which is also part of the FLC consortium.
In comparison, the largest Danish company in the Fehmarn project, Per Aarsleff A/S, has a stock market value of a “measly” almost €785 million. The stock market values mentioned here are the latest from Bloomberg reproduced by Danske Bank.
