Monopile installation for Dutch wind farm complete

The final monopile for the Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm has been successfully installed by Van Oord, bringing the total to 70. The offshore wind farm is located 18.5 kilometres off the coast of the Netherlands, near the seaside resort of Egmond aan Zee. It is being built and run by CrossWind – a joint venture between Shell and Eneco.

Once finished it will have a total installed capacity of 759 MW, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year. This is enough renewable electricity to meet 2.8% of the Netherlands’ electricity demand. The monopiles are the foundations for the wind turbines. The first monopile was installed on October 17th 2022.

Van Oord says it installed all 70 monopiles in a short period of time despite strong wind and cold weather. As a balance of plant contractor for CrossWind Van Oord’s activities encompass the de-sign, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the wind turbine foundations. Van Oord engaged DEME to deploy the jack-up vessel Innovation to install the monopiles.

Van Oord is also involved in the design, engineering, procurement and installation of the inter array cables, as well as the transport and installation of the wind turbines themselves. Meanwhile Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel MPI Resolution is installing secondary steel to complete the foundations. The secondary steel sets consist of boat landings, main access platforms (with davit cranes) and internal platforms. The platforms will be used for maintenance activities once the wind farm is operational. Van Oord will deploy cable-laying vessel Nexus to install the cables starting in March this year.

Roeland Ris, project director Van Oord, 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.”

Wybren de Vries, balance of plant package manager at CrossWind 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.”