Infrastructure
Cable Construction Begins on Massive North-South Power “Autobahn”
The first cables have been laid for the Suedlink electricity connection, which will bring wind-generated power from Germany’s northern coast to its industrial south.
Oct 23, 2024
The cables were laid in the district of Rotenburg/Wümme in the northern regional state of Lower Saxony. The first phase of construction will cover 37 of the power line’s planned 700 kilometers. All told, 2400 kilometers of 525-kV cables will be needed.
The project is truly international. Dutch company De Romein Group has been commissioned to handle the underground engineering, while NKT, which has its headquarters in Copenhagen, is delivering and installing the cables. Italian firm Prysmian will connect Wilster in the north via the northwest of Hamburg with the southern connection point in Bergrheinfeld near Schweinfurt in Bavaria. Regional grid operators TenneT and TransnetBW are responsible for the northern and southern sections of the project respectively. Suedlink will pass through six of Germany’s 16 regional states.
Work on the massive project, which has been called an “electricity Autobahn,” commenced in 2023, with the building of a converter in Leingarten in the south and a crossing of the Elbe River in the north.
The power line is projected to cost some EUR 160 billion, with the national German government covering 60 percent of those expenditures. Suedlink is planned to go operational in late 2028. When up and running, the power link will help Germany avoid costly electricity bottlenecks.
