Leading Irish archaeological services firm Rubicon Heritage Services is pleased to announce it has won a multi-million archaeological framework contract for SuedLink, a 700km underground cable renewable energy electricity network project which will link wind energy in northern Germany with solar power in south Germany. This will be the longest such power cable in the world, with work beginning in October and executed over the next five years.
The Enterprise Ireland-backed Rubicon Heritage Services has created a German subsidiary company Rubicon Archäologie GmbH as part of the INFRA Europe joint venture, which has been appointed as archaeological contractors to all six lots on the SuedLink project in Germany – one of Europe’s largest civil engineering projects. Rubicon will work with the other Joint Venture (JV) partners to ensure that archaeological remains along the route of SuedLink will be recorded appropriately ahead of development in order to minimise any delays to the programme.
SuedLink will be an underground High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) 525 kilovolt (kV) connection routing renewable energy between the wind-rich regions of northern Germany with Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg to secure a stable power supply across the network. SuedLink consists of underground cabling transporting four gigawatts of electrical power over 700km. It will be capable of powering up to 10 million homes, the equivalent of four nuclear power plants.
Colm Moloney, Director, Rubicon Heritage Services, said: “We are very excited to have been successful in this procurement process. Archaeology ahead of large infrastructure is what we do and infrastructure does not get bigger than this. We are really looking forward to working with our amazing German partners and building a robust and sustainable Joint Venture that will deliver archaeological works ahead of megaprojects for many years to come.”
Enterprise Ireland’s Overseas Manager in Germany, Manus Rooney said: “Rubicon Heritage Services is an Irish company that is going from strength to strength. The Enterprise Ireland team in Germany were delighted to support them on this project and are very proud to see them succeed in winning this contract allowing them to grow internationally. At Enterprise Ireland, we are committed to supporting Irish companies to compete and win in international markets, and we look forward to continuing to support the team at Rubicon Heritage Services during the execution phase.”
Extensive archaeological works will be required along the entire route, requiring the deployment of approximately 300 archaeologists at multiple locations over many years. Rubicon, through the INFRA Europe JV, will form part of the delivery of archaeological solutions for this project.
