Construction kicks off at 759-MW Hollandse Kust Noord

Construction works at the 759-MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm in Dutch waters have been officially launched, project developer CrossWind said on Tuesday.

The offshore activities have started with the installation of the first of 70 monopile foundations at the site off the coast of North Holland province, around 18 km (11.2 miles) away from the town of Egmond aan Zee. The monopiles will be put into place during the next few months, with their installation to be completed by the middle of next year.

Construction will be carried out seven days a week, 24 hours a day but may be halted in periods of adverse weather conditions, CrossWind said.

Hollandse Kust Noord is expected to be able to generate at least 3.3 TWh of electricity per year, or enough to meet the annual power needs of over 1 million local homes. The huge complex will be powered by 69 Siemens Gamesa turbines and is due to go online by end-2023.

Once up and running, the wind farm will operate under power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which will procure power from 380 MW of the total capacity.

CrossWind is a joint venture (JV) between Shell plc and Dutch utility Eneco. The company’s plan is to integrate offshore hydrogen production and floating solar panels within the Hollandse Kust Noord project so as to create “the first smart wind farm in the Netherlands.”

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