NKT’s new cable barge ready for German offshore wind grid project

NKT’s new cable barge NKT Agrippina has been loaded with a cable section for the offshore wind connection project Ostwind 2 in the German part of the Baltic Sea and will soon set out on its maiden trip after being christened on 20 April.

The vessel has been specially designed to transport offshore power cables on the river Rhine from the NKT factory in Cologne to the offshore loading centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and is part of a larger investment programme at NKT to support the growing demand in offshore wind industry.

“NKT Agrippina will support us in ensuring a stable and reliable path to the offshore harbour in Rotterdam where we also increase the capacity”, said NKT’s Executive Vice President Mika Makela. “With these investments, we strengthen our position as a leading provider of offshore power cables for the growing demand from the offshore wind industry”.

The 100-metre cable barge has been designed to be energy-efficient and while in harbour, NKT Agrippina is connected to the quay utilising green energy from the grid. 

NKT and Boskalis secured export cable contracts with 50Hertz for the Ostwind 2 offshore grid connection in 2018. NKT is supplying some 270 kilometres of 220 kV high-voltage AC XLPE offshore export cable, and eight kilometres of 220 kV high-voltage AC XLPE onshore cable for the project. Boskalis is in charge of the installation of the cables.

The first cable section was installed this March and further cables will be laid in individual sections along the 90-kilometre-long route over the coming months.

Ostwind 2 will connect the Arcadis Ost 1 and the Baltic Eagle offshore wind farms to the German high voltage grid.