Suedlink: First cables laid for wind power line
In the district of Rotenburg/WĂĽmme, the first cables were laid for the power line that will bring electricity from Schleswig-Holstein to southern Germany.
(Image: Tennet)
The Suedlink power line, which is to bring wind power from Schleswig-Holstein to Baden-WĂĽrttemberg, is taking shape. The first cables have now been laid in the municipality of Heeslingen in the district of Rotenburg/WĂĽmme in Lower Saxony. In the first section, 37 of a total of 700 kilometers are to be laid.
Suedlink is to be built along the entire route in the coming year. According to the legal deadlines, the still outstanding construction permits are expected to be granted in the course of this year and at the beginning of 2025, announced grid operator Tennet. The first early drilling work is already underway in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg, with civil engineering work scheduled to begin in the fall of this year.
The grid operator has commissioned the De Romein Group with the civil engineering work. NKT is supplying and installing the cables for the connection from BrunsbĂĽttel in Schleswig-Holstein to Leingarten in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg. Prysmian connects Wilster in Schleswig-Holstein via the north-west of Hamburg with the southern connection point in Bergrheinfeld near Schweinfurt in Bavaria.
Delays due to resistance
A total of 2400 km of 525 kV cable is being laid for Suedlink. Tennet is responsible for the northern section of the route and the converters in Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria, while TransnetBW is responsible for the southern section of the route and the converter in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg.
With the start of construction of the converter in Leingarten (Heilbronn district), the start of construction in the Heilbronn area in the underground mine and the Elbe crossing of Suedlink, the construction phase for Suedlink began in the south and north at the end of 2023. Construction of the converter in BrunsbĂĽttel (Dithmarschen district) began at the start of 2024. For the two other converters in Wilster (district of Steinburg) and Bergrheinfeld (district of Schweinfurt), work has already begun on the surface reinforcement. The civil engineering work is scheduled to begin in the course of 2025.
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The federal sector planning for Suedlink was already completed in May 2021. The exact route of the line was determined in the subsequent planning approval procedure. There were delays in the planning of the north-south power lines as well as Suedostlink, mainly because politicians decided to build them as underground cables instead of overhead lines on electricity pylons following fierce public protests. The first spade was dug for Suedostlink in March.
(anw)
