Hollandse Kust Noord Hybrid Offshore Wind Farm Installs Its First Turbine

The first wind turbine, out of 69, has been installed at the super-hybrid Hollandse Kust Noord Offshore Wind Farm. This is expected to deliver its first power by summer and to be fully operational by the end of 2023.

Hollandse Kust's First Wind Turbine

Hollandse Kust Noord Offshore Wind Farm installed its first wind turbine at the North Sea, developed by CrossWind in a joint venture of Shell and Eneco. Electrek reported that the 759-megawatt offshore wind farm will install a total of 69 Siemens Gamesa 11.0-200 DD wind turbines to generate at least 3.3 TWh annually.

The wind turbines are about 656 feet, with each turbine containing a blade 97 meters long, longer than the wingspan of an Airbus A380 by about 17 meters. For its position, the wind turbines will be sites around 1 kilometer apart of 0.6 miles.

Installation

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Van Oord used the offshore installation vessel called Scylla to transport and install its first turbine, which sailed out from Eemshaven to the offshore HKN site. The sail started last week and the installation of the foundation was on April 15.

CrossWind Wind Turbine Generator Package Manager Stefan Hartman stated that the installation process will start on the monopile, then the nacelle on top of the tower, then the blades.

"Blade installation will commence if there is a sufficiently long time window of windspeeds below 12m per second m/s. For comparison, 12m/s is a windspeed at which it becomes hard to hold an umbrella,' he added.

Aside from the turbines, Power Technology reported that the wind farm will also feature floating solar, battery storage, and green hydrogen production as part of the green effort of this venture between Shell and Eneco.

Offshore reported that once all turbines are installed, Hollandse Kust Noord Offshore Wind Farm will contribute enough green electricity to meet the 2.8% electricity demand of the Netherlands. While the team onboard the Scylla can install one wind turbine in 24 hours, construction will be suspended depending on weather conditions.

Dutch Government Choosing CrossWind

In 2020, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy have chosen CrossWind to build the super-hybrid offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust Noord. This is a joint venture between Shell and Dutch utility Eneco. The wind farm is set to generate its first power by June, and by the end of 2023, it is expected to become fully operational.

According to Reuter's report last March 2022 that the Netherlands will ramp up its efforts on building offshore wind farms in the coming years in order for the country to double the planned capacity by 2030. This is a bid of the Dutch government to meet its climate goals and reduce its reliance on Russian gas.