Dutch geo-consultancy Fugro has begun an area survey of the 700MW Hollandse Kust (Noord) wind farm zone in the Dutch part of the North Sea.
On behalf of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl), Fugro is conducting a geophysical survey of the area to map the seabed and position of existing cables and pipelines, as well as the possible presence of shipwrecks and any other obstacles.
Fugro has conducted similar surveys in the past for the Borssele and Hollandse Kust (Zuid) wind farm zones.
The results of the survey will be used by wind farm developers to prepare their bids for the tender to develop the wind farm zone. The tender is scheduled to open in 2019.
Hollandse Kust (Noord) is the last of the three North Sea wind farm zones to be surveyed as part of the Dutch government’s Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap programme. Danish energy company Dong and the Dutch Blauwwind consortium were previously selected to develop offshore wind farms in the 1.4GW Borssele wind farm zone.
The tender period for wind farms in the 1.4GW Hollandse Kust (Zuid) zone will open this autumn and continue into next year.