Dutch King Willem-Alexander has officially inaugurated the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust Zuid in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.
To mark the occasion the king celebrated the completion of Vattenfall’s largest offshore wind farm to date together with executives of Vattenfall, BASF and Allianz on the beach of IJmuiden in front of a life-sized human turbine. The electricity generated from Hollandse Kust Zuid is expected to equal the consumption of 1.5 million households.
The Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm is located in the North Sea, 18-36 kilometers off the Dutch coast between the towns of Scheveningen and Zandvoort.
The 139 turbines have a total capacity of 1.5 GW, making it one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
The HKZ offshore wind farm is owned by Vattenfall, BASF and Allianz. The wind farm is expected to be fully operational in 2024 and will be serviced out of the port of IJmuiden.
“Around half of the electricity from Hollandse Kust Zuid will be used to reduce the carbon footprint of our products at BASF sites in Europe. It is the first major investment of BASF in facilities for renewable power. To be part of making that happen makes me also personally very proud and happy. This marks another milestone on our way to climate-neutral production of chemicals,“ says Dr. Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.
BASF aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by the year 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
According to Vattenfall, several innovative techniques were used during the construction of Hollandse Kust, like a double bubble screen to dampen underwater noise during pile driving to limit the impact for harbor porpoises.
Enlarged water replenishment holes in the foundations offer shelter for marine life inside the turbines, the first time the structure of a turbine itself is included in nature-inclusive wind farm design.
Boulders and rocks of varying sizes were used during the construction of scour protection. At several scour protection sites artificial rock reefs were added to make them more attractive to a wider number of fish, crabs and crustaceans.
Three turbines are fitted with recently developed recyclable blades. The resin used to ‘glue’ blades together will be easier to dissolve after the working life of the turbines, making it easier to disseminate the blades and reuse the different elements.
In 2018, Hollandse Kust Zuid was awarded as the first subsidy-free wind farm in the world.
Two offshore substations connect Hollandse Kust Zuid to the Dutch grid. These grid connections have been developed and will be operated by the Dutch TSO TenneT. As part of the Dutch offshore wind policy grid connections are publicly funded, which ensures standardisation and subsequent cost savings. It gives wind farm developers certainty that they will not have to adjust their designs later.
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