Dutch maritime contracting company Royal Van Oord said that its installation vessel Aeolus has completed the installation of the first monopile at the Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm.
In the coming months, Van Oord will place a total of 77 monopiles for the Borssele III & IV and 2 for the innovation site Borssele V.
The Borssele III & IV wind farm will be built 22 kilometres off the coast of the Province of Zeeland and will be one of the largest offshore Dutch wind farms. The start of the monopiles installation is a milestone in the construction of the project and the subsequent cable laying and installation of 77 V164 9.5 megawatts (MW) of wind turbines supplied by MHI Vestas.
Van Oord is performing the Balance of Plant activities, consisting of the engineering, supply and construction of the foundations and connecting cables. The Borssele Beta offshore transformer station will be designed and built by TenneT and is scheduled to be operational by the beginning of 2021.
The construction of the Borssele III & IV wind farm will make an important contribution to the Dutch climate objectives. The Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm will have a total installed capacity of 731.5 MW, providing sufficient power for approximately 825,000 Dutch households.
The wind farm is part of the offshore wind roadmap drawn up by the Dutch government. The roadmap details the areas designated in the North Sea where offshore wind farms can be built.
At the end of December 2016, the Blauwwind consortium won the tender to build the Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm. Blauwwind consists of Partners Group (45%), Shell (20%), DGE (15%), Eneco Group (10%) and Van Oord (10%).
The consortium has signed Power Purchase Agreements with Shell and Eneco Group, which stipulate that they will both purchase 50% of the energy generated by the wind farms for a period of 15 years.
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