Van Oord has announced the completion of the installation of the final monopile at CrossWind’s 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.
Hollandse Kust Noord has a total of 70 monopiles. Construction engineering company DEME’s jack-up vessel Innovation was engaged by Van Oord to install the monopiles.
Located 18.5km off the Dutch coast, near the seaside resort of Egmond aan Zee, the offshore wind farm is expected to produce at least 3.3TWh of clean energy per year. This is said to be adequate to meet 2.8% of the country’s electricity demand.
CrossWind is a joint venture (JV) between Shell and Eneco. It awarded the contract to construct the offshore wind farm to Van Oord in July 2020.
Van Oord commenced the construction of the Hollandse Kust Noord project with the installation of the first monopile in October 2022.
Under its contract, the Dutch company has been responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the wind turbine foundations.
Van Oord is also engaged in the design, engineering, procurement, and installation of the inter array cables, along with the transport and installation of the wind turbines.
Van Oord project director Roeland Ris said: “After an extensive period of preparations, it’s great to now actually see the outlines of the offshore wind farm.
“Thanks to the project team and all partners involved who worked with great efforts and enthusiasm on reaching this important milestone to have all monopiles in place.
“With the supply of secondary steel and inter array cables on target and our offshore installation vessels fully operational, the construction of the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm is progressing well on schedule.”
The Dutch offshore wind farm will feature 69 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 11MW.
CrossWind expects to begin operations at the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm at the end of this year.
CrossWind balance of plant package manager Wybren de Vries said: “The installation of the monopiles was an immense operation, with the monopiles weighing between 788 tons and 960 tons each.
“During the installation works CrossWind and Van Oord promoted and maintained an open culture, in which we acted as one team. I am convinced that this approach defined a big part of our success in reaching this milestone in a safe and timely manner.”
