Arkona's Pounding Heart Stands Tall

E.ON's Arkona project is located 35 kilometers northeast of the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea and will have an output of 385 MW. It can theoretically supply around 400,000 households with renewable energy.

The substation has now been installed at a water depth of almost 30 metres. This resulted in a novelty: The transfer of the "topside" from a barge to the foundation, which was carried out by the crane ship Oleg Strasnov, involved the installation of the world's heaviest alternating current platform, which had previously been lifted in one block on the high seas. The largest single component weighs more than 5,000 tons and consists of the jacket foundation anchored in the seabed and the topside with the electrical switchgear and transformers.

Almost 500,000 working hours are spent in the block, which is the size of an eight-storey apartment building. At an altitude of 70 metres above sea level, there is also a helipad.

The unmanned station is located in the middle of the construction site of the wind farm and bundles the electricity produced from the 60 Siemens wind turbines, which is then transported by a submarine cable to the operating station of the wind farm in the Mukran Port in Sassnitz on the island of Rügen.