PKN ORLEN Selected the design company for its offshore wind farm in Baltic Sea

PKN ORLEN has entered a design phase for the construction of an offshore wind farm project in the Baltic Sea. A preliminary technical design and building permit design for the project will be developed by Offshore Design Engineering Ltd., a UK-based company with over 20 years’ experience in such kind of projects. The initialization of this phase of the project is the result of several months of wind and seabed geology data collection. Once completed, the milestone will enable a detailed project execution plan to be drawn up.

The offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea is a key capital investment project that will significantly strengthen our position as the leader of energy transition in Poland and wider Central Europe. By investing in low- and zero-carbon generation sources, in a few years’ time we are set to become a leading producer of green energy, which is increasingly in demand. But we face many years of hard work before clean energy from the Baltic Sea is fed into the national power grid. We aim to encourage as many players in Poland as possible to join the work in order to support the national economy and build capabilities of the country’s offshore industry,” said Daniel Obajtek, President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board.

PKN ORLEN is the first oil & energy company in Central Europe to declare an intention to achieve CO₂ emission neutrality by 2050. The development of low- and zero-emission power sources is essential to fulfill this goal.  With its construction planned to start in 2024, the offshore project fits into the Company’s strategy to leading to emission neutrality, as a part of which, the Company aims to invest over PLN 25bn by 2030 in projects seeking to reduce its environmental impact and embrace new business models.

All surveys, measurements, and administrative and business processes are in progress, according to schedule. PKN ORLEN has already secured grid connection conditions and completed preliminary seabed geotechnical surveys, and it is continuing the wind measurement programme.

A set of documents containing an application for environmental clearance for the farm site was submitted to the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk in July 2020. The studies and surveys necessary to prepare an environmental impact assessment report took 17 months and covered approximately 323 km². In the recently completed procedure, PKN ORLEN selected an experienced technical adviser to prepare a preliminary design, building permit design and additional analyses necessary to properly plan and carry out the offshore wind farm construction process.

The contractor selected by PKN ORLEN is ODE (Offshore Design Engineering Ltd.), which has more than 20 years’ experience in offshore projects. The company designs offshore wind farms for the world’s largest companies and project owners. Its track record includes almost 8 GW designed in UK waters, and 3.2 GW in North European seas and in other parts of the world, where another 2.6 GW of generation capacity designed by ODE is developed. A major factor in selecting a designer was the local content requirement imposed by PKN ORLEN. In line with the terms of the tender procedure, the contractor included collaboration with local trading partners in its bid. The transfer of know-how achieved by the local content requirement will be an essential element in building capabilities of the Polish offshore industry.

The contract signed with the contractor includes preparation of detailed technical designs for the main offshore wind farm equipment. The documents to be delivered under the contract include turbine layout analyses and assumptions related to estimated capacity factor. The documents will help to prepare a more detailed schedule and cost estimate for the project. The deliverables will also support the execution of other project components, such as fundraising and insurance coverage. With the design in hand, the Company will be able to apply for a building permit for the wind farm.

The offshore wind power project is being run through the subsidiary Baltic Power, which holds a licence to construct wind farms with an aggregate capacity of up to 1.2 GW. The licence area, of approximately 131 km², is located about 23 km north of the Baltic coastline, at the altitude of Choczewo and Łeba.