Fugro plans to commence geotechnical survey operations at the Hollandse Kust (west) site in April, the company informed after recently winning the contract for the works with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl).
As the agreement is expected to be finalised soon, Fugro has already started preparing to carry out the project that will run until September.
For seabed investigation and borehole drilling operations, the company will deploy three of its vessels, including the geotechnical drilling vessel Fugro Scout, as well as the SEACALF MkIV system for seabed cone penetration testing.
According to Fugro’s Project Director Sven Plasman, the company’s ability to mobilise three dedicated geotechnical vessels for the project has played a significant role in securing the contract for what is stated to be the largest geotechnical site characterisation programme tendered by RVO.nl so far.
Together with offshore survey works, Fugro will also provide standard and advanced laboratory testing and an integrated geological/geotechnical soil model that will be used by offshore wind farm developers to prepare their Hollandse Kust (west) bids.
RVO.nl has also selected Fugro for meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) surveys at the 1.4GW offshore wind farm zone, located 51 kilometres off the west coast of the Netherlands. The authority said it intended to have 24 months of validated metocean data measured at the zone prior to the closing of the permit tender.
The Dutch government expects to issue a permit tender call for Hollandse Kust (west) in 2020, as part of its plans to add further 7GW of offshore wind capacity in the Dutch North Sea from 2024 to 2030.
Namely, Hollandse Kust (west) is one of the three offshore wind zones identified in the Dutch Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030 that will accommodate this capacity.