News

As the start of the final conference of the Baltic InteGrid project is apporaching and bringing along many of the concluding outputs of the project, we are glad and proud to present you the results.

One of the main outputs is a culminating compendium of the research conducted in the different disciplinary fields of major importance for the development of offshore wind energy in general and an integrated electricity generation system and transmission grid in particular, focussing on the Baltic Sea region. The report "Baltic InteGrid: towards a meshed offshore grid in the Baltic Sea" is laying out the key findings of the project at length, which can be further studied in even more depth in the underlying reports from the different thematic working groups of Baltic InteGrid.

We wish a good and inspiring read!

Another important output of the Baltic InteGrid project has been published. The document contains recommendations as part of the official consultation of the ENTSO-E's Ten Year Network Development Plan 2018 (TYNDP 2018). The recommendations are based on the findings from the Baltic InteGrid project and condense in one place the full knowledge and analytical results developed within the project.

On 30-31 October 2018, the Baltic LINes and Baltic InteGrid projects organised a joint international Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) workshop and interactive simulation called “Energy Challenge for the Baltic Sea” in Copenhagen.

Baltic InteGrid was invited to present the results of the project at the 4th Renewable Energy Working Group meeting of BEMIP, the European Commission’s Baltic Energy Market Integration Plan, at the Global Wind Summit in Hamburg on 27 September.

From 25-28 September 2018 the WindEurope Conference will be held in Hamburg as a part of the Global Wind Summit 2018, the biggest event of its kind worldwide. During the WindEurope Conference Mariusz Wójcik one of Baltic Integrid’s project partners, will present the results of one of two PreFeasibility Studies, which have been conducted during the project.

On 7 June 2018 the Baltic Integrid’s communication platform – the Baltic Offshore Grid Forum (BOGF) held one of its key conferences, entitled “Offshore Grid and Offshore Wind Energy in the Baltic Sea – Opportunity for Integrating Energy Markets” in Warsaw. The event brought together around 100 experts from the Baltic Sea region. A number of individual presentations as well as panel discussions addressed challenges and opportunities of the Baltic Offshore Grid concept.

Moreover, the results of a pre-feasibility study were presented, which evaluates the technical, economic, regulatory and spatial requirements of offshore meshed grids infrastructure while using the example of two concrete case studies from the Baltic Sea Region: Poland-Sweden-Lithuania and Germany-Sweden integrated with interconnected offshore wind farms.

On 23 May 2018 the 2nd Thematic Working Group (TWG) Seminar on "Technlogy & Grid Design" marked an intermediate milestone of the Baltic Offshore Grid Forum (BOGF), since it was the last of 12 TWG seminars in the project duration of the Baltic InteGrid project. The event took place in Lyngby/Copenhagen (Denmark) and was organised by the DTU as an official side event of the Nordic Clean Energy Week 2018. The event's title “Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Energy Grid Development 2035” has promised and delivered a profound insight into the future of technological developments driving offshore wind energy development in the Baltic Sea Region.

The Baltic Offshore Grid Forum has continued its activities with a Thematic Working Group (TWG) seminar focussing on Market and Supply. The TWG seminar entitled „Which are the new markets in the Baltic Sea Region? “ was organised as part of the the 7th Future Conference: Wind & Maritime taking place in Rostock from 18 to 19 April 2018.

Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Director at DG Energy EU Comission, supports the development of the Baltic Offshore Grid in his statement at the BEIF conference in Warsaw (28 of February 2018).

In conjunction with the series of events held in Finland in mid-March, Baltic InteGrid had the chance to exchange with Anni Mikkonen, CEO, Finnish Wind Power Association (FWPA) about offshore wind power in Finnish waters. Mikkonen shared her insights on lasting barriers and future development potentials in the Finnish offshore wind energy sector and explained what her organisation expects from a future Baltic Offshore Grid Forum (BOGF).

The Wind Energy Department of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has developed a technology catalogue, which covers all crucial components needed to develop offshore grids and wind power. The catalogue can now be consulted as a comprehensive source supporting the various assessments carried out within Baltic InteGrid project.

The first of two Polish Country workshops was held in Warsaw as part of the Baltic InteGrid’s Baltic Offshore Grid Forum activities. Different stakeholders such as representatives of the government administration, maritime administration, transmission network operator and industry experts attended. The aim of the workshop was to consult and discuss the first results of the preliminary Feasibility Study for the Poland-Sweden-Lithuania interconnectors integrated with offshore wind farms. In addition, results of the analysis performed by FNEZ under the programme “Baltic Energy for Poland 2025” regarding the potential of offshore wind energy in Poland have been discussed.

Baltic InteGrid has succesfully the Thematic Working Group Seminar in Maritime Spacial Planning (MSP) in Lithuania on 22 November 2017. Thereby, Baltic LINes project partners have contributed essentially to the discussions and common challenges as well as opportunities for synergies of both projects were explore.

After presentations of relevant MSP aspects of both projects, the participants continued their discussions on thematically focused round tables.

Iberdrola has announced that it has successfully completed the construction of all 70 wind turbines at the Wikinger offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea. The wind turbines of type AD 5-135 were installed by Adwen and Fred. Olsen Windcarrier.

The Baltic InteGrid project reached an important milestone: September marked the end of the first half of the three-year funding period. Since March 2016, the project has organised a series of events, namely a Kick-off and a First Results Conference, Thematic Working Group Seminars on maritime spatial planning, policy and regulation, environment and society as well as a Country Workshop in Latvia.

At the beginning of September the Finnish wind power producer Suomen Hyotytuuli Oy announced the inauguration of the Tahkoluoto offshore wind demonstration project. The 42-MW wind farm compromising 10 Siemens turbines of each 4.2 MW is the first one built off the Finnish coast.

The Baltic InteGrid project was invited to attend the second meeting of the BEMIP Renewable Energy Working Group in Brussels on the 5^th of July 2017 along with the BEMIP Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden), Norway, the European Commission, and other stakeholders. Stakeholders from the wind power industry emphasized the high potential of offshore wind energy generation in the Baltic Sea due to its strong winds, shallow waters and less populated shores than in the North Sea.

As part of Baltic InterGrid’s communication platform – the Baltic Offshore Grid Forum – the conference “Towards a Meshed Grid: Offshore Wind Energy and Interconnectors in the Baltic Sea Region“ took place on the 16 May 2017 in Riga, Latvia. Together with external experts the project partners discussed the opportunities and challenges for the realization of an offshore meshed grid in the Baltic Sea. The debates focused on certain key issues such as the legal and regulatory frameworks, spatial constraints and respective economic conditions as well as the industry development in the Baltic Sea region (BSR).

Baltic InteGrid  brings together a large number of partners with different organisational backgrounds (e.g. universities, research institutes, companies, NGOs, etc.) and engaged individuals from all around. Read on the blog of the EU-DG Regional and Urban Policy how the energy transition in the EU can also be a personal journey from the fossil fuel industry to the renewable energy sources economy.

Baltic InteGrid has conducted one of its planned country workshops in Latvia on 15 May 2017, to receive valuable insights into Offshore Wind Energy (OWE) development in Latvia and discuss opportunities and challenges. Representatives from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Environment and Regional Planning could lay out the progress made in Renewable Energy development and the plans of OWE in it...

During an interview, Lasse Sundahl, Project Manager, Group Regulatory Affairs, DONG Energy shares some practical experience from the industry's point of view. For the Baltic Integrid project this practical insight is important for the ongoing identification of obstacles and opportunities for the development of a meshed offshore infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region.

In Warsaw, the conference „Offshore wind energy an opportunity for the Polish economy” took place on 27-28th February, 2017. The Conference brought together over 250 participants - representatives of government and authorities, the most important national and international maritime companies...

February 2017 started with a special event for the offshore wind energy sector – the WINDFORCE Baltic Sea in Tallinn, Estonia. The two day conference focussed on the challenges for offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea.

Transmission System Operators 50Hertz (Germany) and Svenska kraftnät (Sweden) agreed on further important details regarding the planning and construction of the Hansa PowerBridge in the cooperation agreement that was now signed in Berlin.

Vattenfall has won the tender to build Danish Kriegers Flak, a 600 MW offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.  The winning bid was EUR 49.9 per MWh, which is among the lowest costs in the world for offshore wind power.

Dr. Olga Bogdanova, Head of the Energy Market Unit and Deputy Director of the Energy Market and Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia is acting as Coordinator of the Policy Area Energy (of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. She was interviewed by Anika Nicolaas Ponder from the lead partner IKEM and shared her insights of the Energy Policy in the EU and the Baltic Sea Region.

From 20-21 June the partners of the Baltic InteGrid met at the Technical University of Denmark – DTU, Risø Campus in Roskilde. During the meeting the consortium discussed concrete work steps and project milestones, and agreed on the project logo. A next project meeting including a first thematic working group seminar focused on spatial planning is scheduled for 4-5 October in Gdansk.