French infrastructure group VINCI has won a contract to design, build and install three offshore wind-farm energy-converter platforms in the North Sea, with a total value of €7 billion ($7.7 billion).
The contract has been awarded to a consortium made up of Dragados Offshore — a subsidiary of VINCI — and Siemens Energy by Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT.
The converter platforms will collect the alternating current generated by several wind farms and convert it into high voltage direct current (HVDC), which will be reconverted into alternating current at onshore stations about 200 kilometers (124 miles) away in the German towns of Wilhelmshaven and Heide.
The project is part of Germany’s Energy Transition Plan, which calls for the construction of a major offshore wind power-generation network. Dragados Offshore recently was awarded six other HVDC projects of the same type.