Van Oord kicked off the construction of the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust Noord by installing the first monopile, according to the company's release. Hollandse Kust Noord is located 18.5 kilometres off the west coast of the Netherlands near Egmond aan Zee. The monopiles are the foundations of the wind turbines. Over the next few months, a total of 70 monopiles will be installed.
CrossWind, a joint-venture between Shell and Eneco, contracted Van Oord in 2020. As Balance of Plant contractor, Van Oord’s activities encompass the design, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the foundations, inter array cables and transportation and installation of the wind turbines. To avoid erosion, Van Oord has already successfully installed scour protection using its flexible fallpipe vessel Nordnes. Other Van Oord vessels that will be deployed are the offshore installation vessel MPI Resolution, cable-laying vessel Nexus and trencher Dig-It. For the installation of the monopiles, Van Oord is teaming up with DEME who will deploy its offshore installation vessel Innovation.
Offshore wind is essential in achieving the energy transition in the Netherlands. In the 2030 Roadmap for offshore wind energy, the Dutch government states that more than 21 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind farms will be built and connected to the mainland by 2030. Over the past years, Van Oord has played an important role in the development and construction of several Dutch offshore wind farms. Hollandse Kust Noord will have an installed capacity of 759 MW, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year. This equals enough renewable electricity for more than 1 million Dutch households. CrossWind plans to have the wind farm operational by 2023.