'Largest in Baltic Sea' | Orsted and PGE pick contractor for gigascale Polish offshore wind

Orsted and PGE have chosen the Polish unit of engineering outfit Ramboll, together with the Polish design office Projmors, to prepare a construction project for their 2.5GW Baltica 2 and 3 offshore wind projects.

The contractor will also be responsible for preparing documentation and obtaining a building permit for the maritime part of the OWF Baltica project.

"We are happy to have contracted an experienced consortium for one of the most important scopes in the Baltica 2+3 project,” said Søren Westergaard Jensen, project director for Baltica Offshore Wind on behalf of Orsted.

“Offshore wind is a competitive market where players can gain experience and build their competences through e.g. joining forces by global and local players creating consortia.”

Warsaw last year as part of its 2040 energy transition strategy had set a target for close to 11GW of wind at sea by 2040, along with only 10GW of onshore wind by 2030.

Ramboll Polska and Projmors Maritime Construction Design Office were chosen as part of a competitive dialogue tender procedure. They now have until the third quarter of next year to prepare the design documentation for foundations, turbines, internal cables and power stations at sea, as well as to obtain a building permit, and then prepare the technical design of the Baltica arrays.

The developers plan to bring the 1.05GW Baltica 3 array online in 2026, to be followed by the 1.5GW Baltica 2 wind farm in 2027.

Both have localisation decisions, environmental permits for the maritime part, and transmission network connection agreements with the operator. The projects already have been granted contract for difference (CfD) support.

The project partners this year expect to receive further administrative decision for the onshore transmission part, and will start work on obtaining a building permit – the last administrative permits required before a final investment decision can be taken.

"We have completed a key proceeding that precedes the final investment decision regarding the construction of the Baltica Offshore Wind Farm with a capacity of approx. 2.5GW - the largest in the Baltic Sea,” said Wojciech Dąbrowski, president of the management board at PGE.

“We start cooperation with a contractor who has extensive experience in the field of offshore wind energy and the process of obtaining permits.

“We are pleased that the consortium includes a design office from Gdańsk, which is proof that Polish companies are actively using the opportunities to join the development of offshore wind energy in Poland.”

Baltica 2 and 3 combined with 2.5GW would be the largest operating offshore wind complex in the Baltic Sea if commissioned on schedule. There are much larger projects on the Swedish side of the Baltic Sea, but those are in earlier development stages.