The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a € 500m corporate loan to TenneT. The funds are being made available in connection with the construction and operation of three offshore high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines that will connect wind farms in the North Sea with the German onshore electricity network.
The project planned by TenneT and now being co-financed by the EIB comprises the high-voltage DC lines HelWin1, SylWin1 and DolWin1 connecting offshore wind turbines with a capacity of up to 2.2 GW to the grid. Due to this high capacity and the great distance of the wind farms from the coast, transmission using high-voltage alternating current (AC) is not efficient. Instead TenneT is building and will operate HVDC converter stations of this size for the transmission of high-voltage direct current at sea. Construction has already begun and is expected to be completed in 2014 and 2015.
