04/17/2023

First turbine rises at Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park

The first of 69 wind turbines has been installed at the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park at the North Sea, developed by CrossWind, a joint venture of Shell and Eneco. The wind park is expected to deliver first power to the Dutch grid by summer and to be fully operational by the end of 2023.

Image: Flying Focus

CrossWind’s partners Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Van Oord use the offshore installation vessel Scylla to transport and install the turbines. Scylla sailed out with the first wind turbine from the Eemshaven to the offshore HKN site last week and installed the turbine on its foundation on April 15. The wind turbines have a rotor diameter of 200 meters. One turbine blade is 97 meters long, which is 17 meters longer than the wingspan of an Airbus A380.???????

Powerful wind turbine

One Siemens Gamesa 11.0-200 DD wind turbine can generate up to 11 MW. Once all 69 turbines are installed and commissioned, the Hollandse Kust Noord wind park will have a total installed capacity of 759 MW, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year. This is enough green electricity to meet 2.8% of the Netherlands’ electricity demand.

Continuous installation work

The installation of the wind turbines takes place around the clock, 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. Stefan Hartman, Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) Package Manager at CrossWind, explains: “First the tower is installed on the monopile, then the nacelle on top of the tower. Then come the blades, which are usually the most critical lift with respect to weather conditions. Blade installation will commence if there is a sufficiently long-time window of windspeeds below 12 m/s. For comparison, 12 m/s is a windspeed at which it becomes hard to hold an umbrella.”

In the event of adverse weather conditions, construction work will be suspended. Weather permitting, the team onboard the Scylla can install one wind turbine in 24 hours.