GERMANY – Over the next five years, 50Hertz plans to invest up to €5.6 billion ($6.2 billion) in the infrastructure required for the transport of renewable energy, including overhead power lines, land and submarine cables, and substations.

One focus of 50Hertz is on grid connections for large offshore wind farms in the Baltic and the North Sea. 50Hertz wants to boost the connection capacity for offshore wind farms from around 1 GW today to more than 7 GW in 2030.

50Hertz plans to invest up to €5.6 billion ($6.2 billion) in overhead power lines, land and submarine cables, and substations over the next five years (2022 to 2026), the company said in a press release. This is almost twice as much as in the past five years (2017 to 2021). In addition to the expansion of renewable energies, this development is also being driven by a forecast 30 to 40% increase in electricity demand in the grid area by 2030. This trend is already perceptible today: in 2021, electricity consumption in the eastern German territorial states, Berlin and Hamburg has already risen by three percent year-on-year to 103 TWh.

50Hertz and its expansion plans are backed by their largest shareholder, Elia Group, the company said in a press release.

Currently, 50Hertz feeds wind power from four Baltic Sea wind farms with around 1,000 MW of capacity into its onshore transmission grid. By 2030, 50Hertz plans to connect additional wind farms to the grid in the maritime area between Rügen and the Danish island of Bornholm, off the Darß, and for the first time in the North Sea. Overall, this means an additional total capacity of over 6,000 MW of offshore wind power that can be fed into the grid.

New overhead lines and underground cables are also required on land to transport renewable electricity.

The Grid Development Plan 2035 (2021) approved by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) envisages around 500 km (310 miles) of additional network reinforcement and expansion measures in eastern Germany and Hamburg by 2035, 50Hertz said in a press release. This includes another HVDC link between Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the North Frisian coast.

To this end, 50Hertz and TenneT want to build an innovative hub for direct current in the Heide area that can receive and distribute offshore and onshore wind power.

Source: 50Hertz