What an intensive year it has been for PGE Baltica. The Baltica 2 project – developed by PGE and Ørsted – has completed a portfolio of key component and installation services for this offshore wind farm. The construction works for the onshore part of the project are underway. At the same time PGE Baltica has cleared land for the O&M infrastructure and conducted tenders. It has carried out part of surveying necessary for Baltica 1.
Almost since the very beginning of last year, each month brought information about the progress of the Baltica 2 project that will have 1.5 GW capacity and is planned for commissioning in 2027. The clearest signal of moving forward was the subsequent signing of contracts for the delivery of individual key components necessary for the construction of the offshore wind farm, as well as their assembly at sea. This series began in 2023 with a contract for turbines.
Key decisions for the land and offshore
At the beginning of 2024, the partners in the Baltica 2 investment awarded the contract for installation of monopile foundations and their prior transport to the sea to Van Oord. Contracts for the transport and installation of wind turbines were signed with Fred. Olsen Windcarrier and Cadeler - this scope of work was divided into two parts, and a different contractor was selected for each of them. Seaway7 will be responsible for the transport and installation of the offshore substations. In case of this part of the project, there is a strong local content - Polish entities will supply cranes and part of the cabling as necessary equipment for the OSS.
On land, preparatory work for the construction of the onshore connection infrastructure began in spring 2024. The general contractor selected a consortium of GE Vernova and Polimex-Mostostal to deliver power transformers and carry out works onshore. On the site of the future onshore station in the Choczewo commune in Pomerania, Polimex-Mostostal so far has prepared, among other things, the area and foundations for the 250 and 400 kV stations, as well as a strip of land for the future onshore cable route. At the turn of November and December, the construction of both buildings for onshore substation was already underway. Earlier in the past year, the tender for the contractor of the horizontal directional drilling was also resolved. The works will later enable the connection of the offshore section of the export cables with the onshore section of cables. The work will be carried out by a consortium of Polish companies ROMGOS Gwiazdowscy and ZRB Janicki.
The Baltica 2 project also received building permits for the offshore part of the investment last year. This marked obtaining a complete set of administrative permits required to start construction.
Gdansk and Ustka – sites under construction
PGE and Ørsted – joint-venture partners for Baltica 2 – have signed a lease agreement for port area that will be created as a result of the expansion of the Port of Gdansk. An over 20-hectare terminal 5 will be built there for the installation of offshore wind projects, and it has been reserved by investors for the installation of 107 Baltica 2 turbines. The selected general contractor has already begun preparations for the construction of new port infrastructure.
In case of the O&M base, the appropriate infrastructure is being developed in Ustka. There, for half a year, the removal of remnants of former industrial buildings took place in order to clear the area for new O&M facilities necessary to operate and maintain offshore wind farms. In Ustka, among other things, an administrative and warehouse building will be built, and part of the quay necessary for CTV service units will be renovated. Back in the summer, PGE Baltica announced tenders for the general contractor and contract engineer, with a plan to resolve them at the turn of 2024 and 2025.
Baltica 1 on the horizon
A 0.9 GW Baltica 1 project, developed by PGE and planned for commissioning in the next decade, has completed the two-year period of metocean data collection using LiDAR technology. The contractors continued environmental research for the project, which began in the autumn of 2022. For the needs of the future connection infrastructure, geological research was carried out in the Choczewo commune - where an onshore transformer station for this particular project will be built in the following years.
Geoquip Marine carried out a preliminary geotechnical campaign aimed at recognizing the structure of the seabed in the offshore area where Baltica 1 will be built. At the same time, onshore and offshore research was carried out, necessary to prepare the documentation needed to plan the drilling works. It was performed by Geofizyka Torun, which led the Polish consortium delivering this task. Energoprojekt-Katowice will carry out a conceptual design for the Baltica 1 offshore wind farm - the relevant agreement was signed in August.
In addition, PGE Baltica has selected Ramboll as a technical advisor for all of its offshore wind farm projects – those currently being implemented and those planned for development.
Coming up in 2025
In the new year, the Baltica 2 project will primarily focus on preparing the area of ??the future offshore wind farm for the installation of monopiles, which requires removing or shifting boulders that could hinder the construction of the offshore power plant's support structures. It is also planned to prepare corridors at sea, through which cables will run power towards land. The aforementioned land-to-sea drilling using HDD technology will be carried out for Baltica 2. And while we're on land, the delivery of large-size transformers to the Baltica 2 onshore station is planned for 2025.
In Ustka, PGE Baltica plans to start construction work on the area of ??the future operational and service base. Its planned commissioning is scheduled for the last quarter of 2026.