The Hollandse Kust West (´HKW´) hybrid offshore wind and offshore floating solar (´OFS´) project catapults the Dutch-Norwegian company towards commercialization and accelerates the scaling up of manufacturing, assembly and installation. The Project due to become operational in 2026
Following the collaboration agreement signed between SolarDuck and RWE in July this year, SolarDuck was selected as the exclusive provider for offshore floating solar (´OFS´) technology with integrated energy storage in RWE´s bid for the offshore wind farm HKW VII. The successful bid will now materialize a hybrid OFS power plant at scale. SolarDuck´s CEO Koen Burgers states: “This is a flagship project for SolarDuck and an important milestone for the wider OFS industry. SolarDuck, being the first to build a hybrid project at this scale, will demonstrate the robustness of our solution, prove the important role of system integration in building future-fit energy systems, and enable the scaling of the technology to accelerate its adoption. We are proud to work together with our partner, RWE, in this important project.”
SolarDuck accelerates scaling and commercialization of its technology
Delivering this project will enable SolarDuck to scale faster, reap the associated cost benefits and ultimately accelerate commercial projects at grid scale. Hybrid offshore wind and OFS projects promise to accelerate the adoption of OFS at scale. The complementarities between wind and solar resources as well as making better use of existing infrastructure and the ocean space will drive the growth of hybrid OFS projects. In this way, SolarDuck can have a deeper impact in decarbonizing the world, particularly in sunny regions of the world where land is scarce.
SolarDuck powers the world with clean solar energy by using state-of-the-art technology
SolarDuck is a Dutch-Norwegian OFS company with strong roots from the maritime industry. The company was established following a spin-off from DAMEN Shipyards (the largest shipbuilder in the Netherlands). Since then, SolarDuck has worked relentlessly towards the vision to ‘Electrify the world with OFS’. SolarDuck generates offshore solar energy using its unique, state-of-the-art technology, which is fully scalable to match specific local requirements, worldwide. The company offers a sustainable solution to meet the world's rising demand for energy, especially where the need for decarbonization and limited land space means the solution lies in the ocean space. SolarDuck’s technology offers an attractive value proposition in a wide array of user cases, ranging from islands in the sunbelt to hybrid offshore energy parks in the North Sea, including the Netherlands.
Hollandse Kust West (HKW) VII
The HKW VII wind farm is one of two wind farms due to become operational by 2026 with a capacity of 700MW. The wind farm is located approximately 28.6 nautical miles (53 kilometers) off the west coast of the Netherlands. In addition to the production of offshore wind energy, the Government requested participating parties to offer solutions for fully integrating all the electricity generated into the Dutch energy system with the goal to contribute to the goal of 21GW of offshore wind energy around 2030.
