The first monopile has been put in place, signalling the start of construction on the 759 MW Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) offshore wind farm.
Van Oord will set up the project’s 70 monopiles at the HKN site, which is 18 kilometres offshore in Egmond aan Zee, over the ensuing months.
By the middle of 2023, the monopile installation is anticipated to be finished.
The joint venture between Shell and Eneco that owns the wind farm, CrossWind, will incorporate a number of technologies during the building of the wind farm, including floating solar panels and offshore hydrogen generation.
Crosswind’s CEO and project director of Hollandse Kust Noord, Tjalling de Bruin, said “This is the first step towards the realisation of a total installed capacity of 759MW by the end of 2023 when the wind farm will come on stream.”
The wind turbines that will be installed will form part of a “smart” wind farm.
De Bruin added “The wind doesn’t always blow equally hard everywhere.”
“How do you ensure that green electricity can still be supplied even when wind speeds are low? Together with our partners, we are exploring five different innovations designed to meet these challenges.”
“In this way we are trying to ensure that future offshore wind farms will form a constant power supply regardless of how hard the wind blows, and helping to keep the electricity grid stable.”
