Cadeler’s jack-up Wind Osprey has left Sif’s facility at Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam loaded with the first batch of Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines to be installed at the 1.5 GW Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.
The project milestone marks a series of firsts for the offshore wind industry.
Firstly, these will be the first wind turbines ever to be installed on a subsidy-free offshore wind farm seeing that Vattenfall is constructing Hollandse Kust Zuid without financial assistance from the Dutch government.
Secondly, these Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines will be the largest and the most powerful commercial wind turbines to be installed on any wind farm in the world. The wind turbines have a rotor diameter of 200 metres and a total height from sea level to the top of the blade of 225 metres.
And thirdly, this marks the start of the turbine installation phase on what will become the largest offshore wind farm in operation once commissioned in the summer of 2023.
Located some 20 kilometres off the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm zone occupies an area of 235.8 square kilometres and will comprise 140 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines and two offshore substations .
The wind farm’s first turbine is expected to be commissioned and producing electricity by early May 2022, according to Vattenfall.
Vattenfall, together with BASF and Allianz , is the owner of the wind farm and is leading the development of the project.