Dutch King Inaugurates 1.5 GW Hollandse Kust Zuid Offshore Wind Farm

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and board members of Vattenfall, BASF, and Allianz officially inaugurated the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust Zuid 1-4 on 29 September. Having 139 wind turbines and an installed capacity of 1.5 GW, Hollandse Kust Zuid is one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.

The subsidy-free 1.5 GW wind farm, located 18-36 kilometres off the Dutch coast between the towns of Scheveningen and Zandvoort, is expected to be fully operational in 2024 and will be serviced out of the port of IJmuiden.

Hollandse Kust Zuid’s annual electricity production is estimated to equal the consumption of 1.5 million households. Chemicals giant BASF, which holds a 49.5 per cent stake in HKZ 1-4, will be using the electricity from the wind farm for its ownership share through a long-term power purchase agreement to power to support chemical production at its sites across Europe.

“Hollandse Kust Zuid plays an important role in our transition toward Net Zero. Nearly half of the electricity from Hollandse Kust Zuid will be used to reduce the carbon footprint of our products at BASF sites in Europe”, said Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF.

The offshore wind farm features 139 Siemens Gamesa SG 11.0-200 DD wind turbines, one less than the planned 140, following one of the foundations being damaged last year after a collision with bulk carrier Julietta D, after it became rudderless during a storm and drifted through the wind farm.

Following the incident and a subsequent investigation and review, it was decided that the foundation was damaged too much to install a turbine and would not be replaced. The damaged foundation will be removed in 2024.

The last wind turbine was installed in June this year.

Three of the 139 Hollandse Kust Zuid’s turbines are fitted with Siemens Gamesa’s recyclable blades.

The project has also incorporated a few biodiversity protection and enhancement measures, including a double bubble screen to dampen underwater noise during pile driving to limit the impact on harbour porpoises.

Furthermore, the foundations feature enlarged water replenishment holes that offer shelter for marine life inside the turbines. This is the first time the structure of a turbine itself is included in nature-inclusive wind farm design, according to the developers. In addition, boulders and rocks of varying sizes were used during the construction of scour protection and artificial rock reefs were added at several scour protection sites to make them more attractive to a wider number of fish, crabs and crustaceans.

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