All monopiles up for Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind project

The CrossWind joint venture this week marked the installation of the final of 70 monopiles for its 759-MW Hollandse Kust Noord wind project off the coast of the Netherlands.

The first monopile was driven into the ground less than four months ago in October, Dutch utility Eneco, one half of CrossWind, said.

Van Oord, the balance of plant contractor for the project, handled the monopile installation during this short period despite strong wind and cold weather. DEME’s jack-up vessel Innovation was used for the job, Eneco said.

Van Oord is now installing secondary steel to complete the monopile foundations. Cable installation is due to start in March.

“The installation of the monopiles was an immense operation, with the monopiles weighing between 788 tons and 960 tons each,” said Wybren de Vries, Balance of Plant Package Manager at CrossWind.

Added Roeland Ris, Project Director Van Oord: “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.”

The wind farm site is located some 18.5 kilometres (11.5 miles) from the seaside resort of Egmond aan Zee. It will feature 69 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines capable of generating at least 3.3 TWh per year.

Eneco’s partner in CrossWind is oil-and-gas major Shell Plc (LON:SHEL).

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