On 9 December 2025, Amprion submitted planning approval applications to the Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport for two onshore cable sections of the BalWin1 and BalWin2 offshore grid connections, covering the route between Bosel and the Alfsee (section 2) and from the Alfsee to the Lower Saxony-North Rhine-Westphalia border (section 3), thereby beginning the approval process for the onshore cable routes.
Germany’s BSH announced that, following receipt and initial examination of an application from Amprion Offshore GmbH and Amprion GmbH, a planning approval procedure with public participation will be carried out for the offshore grid-connection system “BalWin2 and BalWin beta” in the German North Sea EEZ, with the plan documents made available for public participation on the Application and Participation Portal for Transport and Offshore Projects from 08 December 2025 to 07 January 2026.
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BalWin2 is an Amprion-operated offshore grid connection designed to transmit up to 2,000 MW of electricity from North Sea offshore wind farms in the BalWin cluster to the German onshore transmission grid. The system uses ±525 kV HVDC technology with dedicated metallic return and fibre-optic commu...
Owners
NOR-10-1, LanWin3
On 5 December 2025, BSH announced that it had received an application from Amprion Offshore GmbH and Amprion GmbH to initiate a planning approval procedure under the Offshore Wind Energy Act for construction and operation of the offshore grid-connection system "BalWin2 and BalWin beta" in the German EEZ of the North Sea, marking submission of the offshore planning approval (Planfeststellung) application.
Amprion commenced construction on Norderney for BalWin1 and BalWin2 submarine cable laying via HDD boring. First 6 of 18 boreholes started summer 2025.
On 12 June 2025, Amprion, together with Dragados Offshore, Siemens Energy and Meyer Werft, celebrated the start of production for the BalWin1 and BalWin2 offshore converter platforms, with steel-cutting and fabrication works beginning that week at Dragados’s yard in Spain and the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg. This marks the commencement of topside and platform manufacturing for the BalWin2 transmission system’s converter platform.
On 30 May 2025, Aker Solutions signed a significant contract with Dragados Offshore to deliver the steel substructure for the 2 GW HVDC converter station for the BalWin2 offshore wind grid connection system in Germany, developed by Amprion Offshore GmbH. The contract scope for Aker Solutions covers procurement, fabrication engineering and construction of the offshore HVDC converter platform substructure, with fabrication to be carried out at the company’s Verdal yard in Norway.
BNetzA confirmed BalWin2 in Netzentwicklungsplan (NEP) 2037/2045 (2023) on 1 March 2024. This confirmation under §12c EnWG creates the legal basis for the responsible TSO to plan, procure, and construct the offshore grid connection system.
BNetzA confirmed the Netzentwicklungsplan Strom 2037/2045 (2023 edition) on 1 March 2024 under section 12c of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG). This confirmation includes BalWin2 as a required 2 GW offshore grid connection system and creates the legal basis and obligation for responsible TSO Amprion to plan, procure, and construct the system. For regulated German TSO offshore grid connections, the BNetzA NEP confirmation functions as the de facto Final Investment Decision: unlike merchant or developer-led projects that require a separate board-level investment decision and financial close, the NEP confirmation simultaneously authorises and obligates the TSO to invest. Costs are recovered through the offshore grid levy (Offshore-Netzumlage), so there is no project finance or bank lending to arrange. The NEP 2037/2045 (2023) schedules 25,980 MW of offshore transmission capacity across 16 grid connection systems for commissioning between 2026 and 2032, of which BalWin2 is one of 11 systems at the new 2 GW standard using plus-minus 525 kV HVDC technology. This event is recorded alongside the planning_consent_awarded event of the same date because the NEP confirmation serves both the consenting and investment-decision functions for TSO-operated offshore grid connections in Germany.
Prysmian finalized and signed three contracts worth around EUR 5 billion with Amprion to deliver approximately 4,400 km of ±525 kV HVDC and Dedicated Metallic Return cables for the BalWin1 and BalWin2 offshore grid connection systems and the DC34 underground cable project in Germany. This package, now added to Prysmian’s order backlog, confirms Prysmian as the cable supplier and installer for BalWin2’s HVDC export cable system, securing the necessary cable resources to transmit up to 2 GW from the BalWin cluster in the German North Sea to the Westerkappeln grid connection point in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In 2023, Amprion and the other German TSOs submitted the draft Netzentwicklungsplan Strom 2037/2045 (NEP 2023 edition) to BNetzA for confirmation, including BalWin1 and BalWin2 (then still named LanWin1 and LanWin3) as required 2 GW offshore grid connection systems linking future North Sea wind farms to onshore grid points at Wehrendorf and Westerkappeln. This submission initiated the formal NEP confirmation process under section 12c EnWG. BNetzA subsequently confirmed the plan on 1 March 2024, creating the legal basis for Amprion to proceed with procurement and construction.
Amprion selected Prysmian Group as the preferred bidder to supply and install the ±525 kV HVDC cable systems for the BalWin1 and BalWin2 offshore grid connection systems and the DC34 underground cable project in Germany. Under the preferred bidder agreement, Prysmian reserved the required production and installation capacity while Amprion and Prysmian negotiated remaining contract items with a target to execute final contracts by 15 January 2024, securing major cable components for BalWin2 and other projects through 2030.
Amprion Offshore awarded the BalWin2 HVDC converter platform contract to the Dragados Offshore / Siemens Energy consortium. Siemens Energy responsible for HVDC systems for offshore and onshore converter stations.
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