Strabag increases role in Germany’s renewable grid expansion
16 January 2025
Austria-based Strabag received a “three-digit-million-euro” contract for Germany’s SuedLink and SuedOstLink direct current underground power transmission energy expansion projects, pushing the firm’s total value on the combined scheme to more than €1.1 billion (US$1.13 billion).
Construction work underway on the SueOstLink transmission project in Germany. (Image: Strabag)
German subsidiary Strabag SE – a technology group providing end-to-end services for the construction industry – was assigned the work.
Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of Strabag SE, said the announcement aligned with the firm’s strategy of increasing activity in energy-sector construction.
“In Germany, the SuedLink and SuedOstLink transmission corridors play a key role in this strategy,” he said.
On the SuedLink project, the company will carry out civil engineering works for a 34.5km section of transmission line from Gerstungen to Breitungen in the state of Thuringia.
In addition to the 34.5-kilometre section in Thuringia, work is also expected on a 70km in Lower Franconia and a section of about 100km in southern Lower Saxony in a joint venture with Köster Bau.
Strabag said it is also realising sections of the SuedLink corridor for provider TrasnetBW, with a total length of almost 205km.
For SuedOstLink, Strabag is building two sections of the corridor with a total length of around 120km: one section of around 82km in Upper Palatinate and another 38km section in Thuringia for client 50Hertz.
A closer look at Strabag’s work on SueLink, SuedOstLink projects
Strabag added, “The contracts mainly involve civil engineering and earthworks – in each case on an enormous and previously rarely achieved scale.
Map of SuedOstLink and SuedLink proejcts in Germany. (Image courtesy Strabag)
“The cut-and-cover works involve excavating and refilling the trenches for the guard tubes and empty conduits into which the DC cables will later be laid.
“Wherever it is necessary to cross obstacles such as roads, a trenchless technique, such as horizontal directional drilling (HDD), is used to lay the pipes underground without digging.”
The three grid operators – TransnetBW, TenneT and 50Hertz – plan to use the SuedLink and SuedOstLink direct current power corridors to transport renewable energy from northern and eastern Germany, in particular wind energy from the large wind farms offshore and along the coast, to the south of the country, Strabag said.
The projects are expected to finish in 2028.
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