ORSTED Telecommunications

Orsted, the largest windfarm company in the world, approached Leading Edge in the spring of 2024 as they were planning to build two wind farms in the north sea. They needed radio and broadband communications offshore as part of their Health and Safety plans. The radios were mission critical and had to work 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. They were to be powered by renewable energy sources and that was our challenge.

The first being Borkum Riffgrund 3 (BR3) Offshore Wind which was extension to the existing BR1&2. Now operational It stands as Germanys largest offshore wind farm with a total capacity of 913 MW.

BR3 is located in the German North Sea, approximately 72 kilometres off the coast of Lower Saxony. It spans an area of roughly 75 square kilometres adjacent to the existing Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2 arrays.

The farm has 83 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, each featuring an individual rated capacity of 11 MW and 200-metre rotor diameters. Now complete the farm generates enough clean electricity to power roughly 900,000 German homes. The second farm was a 253 MW offshore wind farm again located in the German sector of the North Sea. It now generates enough clean, renewable energy to power approximately 250,000 German households annually

At the head of each farm, the foremost turbine masts were both built to accommodate a 1500 tonne concrete platform 30 metres above the sea level. The platform was the base station for operational radio equipment and broadband internet connectivity to shore via Starlink and LTE as back up. This was needed to provide communication locally offshore for the construction teams as well as to provide communication to ORSTED’s operational team onshore. This was mission critical as it formed part of the Health and safety plan for the construction of both farms.

Leading Edge were commissioned to provide enough power, using renewable energy sources only, to power the Radio, Starlink, the LTE router and to provide remote connectivity to the shore 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. LEP would also provide remote monitoring of the system and maintenance services off shore during the project. Leading Edge worked in partnership with Tactical Wireless to provide remote monitoring and control via a Peplink router and AWS.

Leading Edge designed, installed, serviced and monitored two hybrid renewable energy systems that could provide continuous reliable power to the communication systems 365 days of the year in one of the harshest environments on earth. Each system comprised of 3 off LEV150 Storm wind turbines, 4 off 410w REC solar panels (1.64Kwp), 8 off 200ah Rolls AGM batteries and an EFOY Pro 2800 Methanol fuel cell as back up contained within IP65 rated cabinets. The system was designed to power a continuous base load of 125w.

The Turbines and Solar panels were mounted on specially designed mounting points designed in collaboration with the ORSTED engineers and fabricated by EMSEA Ltd.

Our technicians fitted the equipment on shore in Eemshaven harbour in the Nederlands.

The equipment, the mounting systems and their associated containment had to be engineered to endure the conditions experienced in the North sea for at least two years. Leading Edge’s technical team completed Global Wind Organisation (GWO) approved off-shore training in order to service and maintain the systems out a sea.

Both farms are now connected to the German grid and decommission will take place during the summer of 2026.

IP 65 rated enclosures housing the Hybrid control gear, batteries and Methanol Fuel Cell. Specially designed stainless-steel pallets built for the project.

Inside the Fuel Cell cabinet: LEP specialised Ultrasonic Fuel level sensors.

Please enquire if you have a project that needs off-grid power in the most extreme environments on earth. Contact: sales@leadingedgepower.com