At the site of the future substation near Nierderaichbach in the district of Landshut, the green light was given today for the construction of the southern converter for the SuedOstLink direct current line and its 2-kilometre-long connecting line. The converter is a crucial component of this power grid connection. In future, it will be able to convert up to two gigawatts of direct current into alternating current.

The launch event was attended by the Federal Government Coordinator for the Maritime Industry and Tourism Dieter Janecek as well as representatives of the transmission system operator TenneT, the Federal Network Agency and the Bavarian state government.

Dieter Janecek said: "Construction of the extremely important south-east link (SuedOstLink) is now also beginning in Bavaria. I would like to thank the project developer TenneT, the Federal Network Agency, the local decision-makers and stakeholders for their commitment and successful cooperation. We are gradually making progress towards climate neutrality in the electricity sector. Over the next two decades, we will need thousands more network kilometres. They must be planned, approved and built quickly. In order to meet the ambitious timetables, it is important that everyone involved in the grid expansion pulls together."

The SuedOstLink converter near Niederaichbach is the end point of the 540-kilometre direct current connection between Wolmirstedt in Saxony-Anhalt and Landshut in Bavaria. Due to its proximity to conurbations and industrial centres such as Regensburg, Ingolstadt and Munich, the converter has an important role in securing the energy supply in this region. In future, large quantities of renewable electricity from wind farms in Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas will be transported there. They are converted and reliably fed into the regional electricity grid in Bavaria. Construction of the converter at the starting point of the SuedOstLink in Wolmirstedt began in March of this year.

Currently, 119 new projects with 13,700 kilometres of grid are being planned, approved and built in Germany. Around 2,100 kilometres of these are already in full operation. Around 3,100 kilometres are still in the approval process and 1,500 kilometres are already in the regional or federal sectoral planning process. Around 5,200 kilometres are in the planning approval stage and 1,800 kilometres are currently under construction.

The coalition agreement provides for a significant acceleration of planning and approval procedures for the construction of electricity grids. In this legislative period, decisive changes to the Grid Expansion Acceleration Act (NABEG), the Federal Requirements Plan Act (BBPlG) and the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) have been passed in several legislative packages to date.