Siemens Energy amps up in US offshore wind with full-scope Sunrise high voltage cable deal
German energy giant teams up with Norwegian Aker Solutions for both offshore interarray cables, as well as high voltage export line connecting 924MW project to grid
Siemens Energy, parent company to German-Spanish wind OEM Siemens Gamesa, is set to supply its state-of-the-art high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission technology for New York state’s giant Sunrise Wind development, in a first for a US offshore wind power project.
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The German energy giant will team up with Norwegian Aker Solutions to provide both the alternating current interarray cables connecting the turbines at sea as well as the 160km HVDC export line that will bring the 924MW of power to a substation in Long Island, New York, for distribution into the grid.
This is the second major announcement by a Siemens-owned company in the US offshore wind sector this week, with Siemens Gamesa announcing a $200m blade manufacturing facility to service Dominion Energy’s 2.6GW CVOW project.
The turbine maker is already the preferred supplier for Sunrise Wind , owned jointly by Danish developer Orsted and US utility Eversource, and is in the frame to deliver 115 of its 8MW units for the project, which is located in federal waters 31 miles (50km) off the coast of Montauk, New York and 19 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The HVDC system Siemens Energy will supply to Sunrise Wind will consist of an offshore converter station which will collect the 66kV AC power generated by the wind turbines through the interarray network and transform it into 320kV DC for transmission via the export line to the onshore substation where it will be converted back to AC and fed it into the grid.
Aker Solutions will provide the steel jacket substructure, and a topside platform deck housing the electrical equipment.
“To date, we have connected the offshore grid to the mainland 21 times, bringing more than 12GW of wind power to households in Europe,” said Tim Holt, member of the executive board at Siemens Energy.
The HVDC work is part of Orsted and Eversource’s overall $400m investment in New York State to build Sunrise Wind.
“We’re helping to advance the US industry to help achieve the Biden administration’s goal of 30GW by 2030,” said David Hardy, CEO of Orsted Offshore North America. “This includes building the supply chain and manufacturing base, as well as bringing to the US leading technology that will further improve efficient transmission and build workforce capabilities for this growing American industry.”
The onshore installation of the project’s converter station will be carried out by local companies, and the entire project is expected to generate 800 construction jobs and 100 permanent operations and maintenance positions, with an additional 2,000 indirect jobs. Final delivery of the HVDC transmission system is scheduled for second half of 2025, with Sunrise Wind expected to start commercial operations in early 2026.
“The use of this technology allows us to efficiently deliver clean, offshore wind energy to the communities we’ll serve,” said Joe Nolan, CEO of Eversource Energy. “It also signals that the country is ready to integrate large offshore wind farms like Sunrise Wind into the grid system.”
New York is leading the nation with targets of 9.5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2035, and zero-emissions power supply by 2040.
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