German manufacturer Siemens has completed the installation of SylWin1 grid connection in the North Sea and handed it over to network operator TenneT.

The now-operational link is located at nearly 70km from the west of Sylt island in Germany. It will allow transmission of up to 864MW of renewable energy.

The link connects three offshore wind facilities, Butendiek, DanTysk and Sandbank, which have been equipped with 232 Siemens wind turbines in total and have a generation capacity of 288MW each.

More than 100 turbines have already been connected to the grid with work for the others in progress.

The offshore platform transmits renewable energy via a 200km subsea and underground cable link to the land-based station Büttel in Germany.

The transmission capacity of SylWin1 can meet the energy requirements of more than one million households.

Siemens has implemented high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) technology for the connection, which is claimed to be ‘world’s most powerful grid connection to date’.

TenneT managing board member Lex Hartman said: “2015 is a special milestone year for TenneT, as we will be completing further offshore grid connections by the end of the year, meaning that all in all we will have implemented a capacity of more than 5,000MW, or more than two-thirds of the offshore expansion goal set by the Federal German Government by then.”

Siemens has won five North Sea grid connection projects by TenneT, three of which have been turned operational this year. These are BorWin2 (800MW), HelWin1 (576MW) and SylWin1 (864MW).

The other two projects to be set up by the German firm are HelWin2 (690 MW) and BorWin3 (900 MW).

Power-Technology.