Offshore Wind – a Continuation of the Past

The Dutch excel in maritime services, a history that can be traced back to the days of the first explorers. Even then the abundance of waterways in their own country were not enough for the Dutch traders.

Curious and creative minded and always looking out for new opportunities, they explored the waters beyond the boundaries of their homeland. Vessels were adapted or specifically designed for these voyages on the great oceans.

Overcoming many challenges and hardships on the way they reached the far outmost corners of the earth and set up successful trade routes which brought an abundance of wealth to this small country which is still visible in today s architectural and economic landscape. Many of these trade routes have lasted to the present time.

Although there are hardly any places on this earth that are still unknown to us and technical developments have brought us to a point where we can reach these distant corners of the world within a few days, we can still find the spirit of these old maritime explorers and traders reflected in today’s maritime industry. The offshore wind industry is a good example where the Dutch have worked in both national and international waters.

National developments

The Dutch’ involvement in wind energy goes back over 40 years when the first wind turbines were placed on shore. Offshore wind started to develop around the turn of the century and the Dutch were also there, in fact, the Netherlands was one of the first countries to install a wind farm offshore.

In the late Nineties plans for offshore wind were announced and in 2000 the location of the very first offshore wind farm was confirmed: Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ), located ten to 18 kilometres off the coast of Egmond aan Zee. This was followed by the announcement of the tender in 2002. Five years later, at the start of 2007, the 108MW wind farm was fully operational with 37 Vestas 3MW turbines generating green electricity. OWEZ is a project by NoordzeeWind, a joint venture of Shell and Nuon.

OWEZ was soon followed by the wind farm Prinses Amaliawindpark. Located nearby, 23 kilometres off the coast of IJmuiden, it has 60 Vestas 2MW turbines in operation since July 2008. The wind farm is owned by Dutch utility Eneco. Together these wind farms can generate enough green energy to provide 255,000 Dutch households in their annual electricity needs.

However, after the completion of the second wind farm a long period of inactivity in Dutch waters was to follow, although the country still remained in the top list when it came to installed capacity. A lack of long term political commitment and an inefficient tender process are some of the reasons that can be stated.

In the steps of the old explorers

But, as with the early seafarers and explorers, the Dutch maritime industry did not ‘put all their eggs in the national industry basket’. While they ‘missed the boat’ in national waters for these years, they did make sure they literally sailed off into international waters. And again, as with their predecessors, they did so successfully! At the moment there is not a single offshore wind farm in Europe built or being built without some Dutch involvement and these combined activities are worth billions of euros.

The Netherlands lacked in building up a turbine or blade manufacturing industry for the offshore wind industry, where Denmark did not. But in almost every other stage of a wind farm project, from environmental, meteorological, geological and geophysical research and other activities as part of the site assessments in preparation for project consent, through to the construction, and finally in the operation and maintenance phase once the wind farm is in full operation you will find input from one or more Dutch companies. It would be impossible to sum up every single Dutch company active in this industry so we concentrate below on some of the companies that have been supporting the offshore wind industry nationally and internationally with their vessels.

Support vessels

For example, the total sea miles that Windcat Workboats’ yellow support vessels have made, ever since they started as one of the first dedicated companies to work in wind farms, could well be an industry record. They are joined by other operators such as Royal Wagenborg,

Offshore Wind Services, SeaZip Offshore, Sima Charters and Braveheart Shipping. When Vroon Group BV took a majority stake in MPI in 2006 it brought their fleet of support vessels into the Dutch list.

Damen Shipyards, internationally known for their workboat building, also successfully started building for the wind industry a few years ago. Their Damen FCS 2610, and now also the FCS 2008, type of support vessels have been bought by many international operators. All these vessels, whether built or bought by Dutch companies have been providing support services such as crew and small cargo transfers during installation and operational phases of a wind farm.
Companies such as Deep BV and Fugro Survey BV offer geophysical and geotechnical survey services, both owning their own fleet of vessels that can be deployed for these activities.

Installation vessels

Not only have Dutch companies been involved in the support activities, they have also played an active role in the actual construction of the wind farms. When it comes to foundation installation activities Ballast Nedam’s heavy lift vessel Svanen has been working at numerous international wind farms for many years now. In June this year the company celebrated the installation of their 500th monopile foundation. Jumbo Offshore’s Jumbo Javelin is another vessel that has been chartered for foundation installation work while Heerema Marine Contractors has used their crane vessel Thialf for the installation of the offshore transformer stations.

With the above mentioned acquisition of a majority stake in MPI, Vroon not only added a fleet of support vessels but also the large installation vessel, the MPI Resolution, which was later joined by the Discovery and Adventure. These are joined by the mobile crane platforms operated by Jack-Up Barge. The Seafox 5, managed and operated by Workfox BV, is a new installation vessel that was added last year to the ‘Dutch’ fleet of installation vessels, that can be used for the offshore wind industry. And finally, contractor Van Oord, who has worked as a contractor at international projects, has recently christened their very first , wind farm installation vessel (WTIV), the Aeolus.

In the area of cable installation and related activities, subsea cable installation company VBMS (previously known as Visser & Smit Contracting) owns a fleet of vessels, such as the Stemat Spirit, that has been actively involved in the installation of export and inter array cables in a wind farm from the beginning. Another cable laying vessel to join the Dutch fleet is Van Oord’s Nexus, currently being built by Damen Shipyards. While not owning their own fleet, several other companies, too many to mention all, have delivered services and components for the installation vessels. As a matter of fact, most of the installation vessels that are currently working in the offshore wind industry are designed by design and engineering company GustoMSC. Huisman Equipment BV has designed and built heavy-lift cranes capable of lifting the heavy components of a turbine. Engineering and construction company IHC Hydrohammer BV designed the Hydrohammer which facilitates the hammering activities by installation vessels in reducing the necessary noise pollution. The self-stabilising gangway by Ampelmann Operations have made many safe transfers of personnel and small cargo from a vessel to the landing platform of a turbine possible at wind farms.

Ports

All these vessels and components need a port for mooring, loading and storage. The port of Flushing is strategically located in the south to serve the United Kingdom, Belgian projects and in some cases the more northern projects in the North Sea and many installation vessels, Dutch and foreign, have used this port. In the North, the ports of IJmuiden and Den Helder have played a role and close to the German border the Port of Eemshaven is strategically positioned for the projects in Northern European waters.

Future outlook

For the past five years the Dutch have had to be commercially active mainly outside their own country. However, 2014 has marked the return to activity in the home country with the start of construction of two new offshore wind farms, the 129MW Eneco Luchterduinen and the 600MW Gemini wind farm. These are part of the nine wind farms that received consent from the Government in 2009.

Eneco Luchterduinen is being developed by utility Eneco and Japanese Mitsubishi and will have 43 Vestas 3MW turbines installed 23 kilometres off the coast between Noordwijk and Zandvoort. At the time of writing the cable and foundation installation were in full process. In May of this year the Dutch Gemini project, located 55 kilometres North of the island of Schiermonnikoog, consisting of two development zones Buitengaats and ZeeEnergie, reached financial closure after which construction could officially start. Gemini is to become the largest and most distant Dutch offshore wind farm when in operation, and is at the moment the largest project financed wind farm in this industry. In both projects Van Oord will be the main EPC contractor. So, for the next few years there will be more activity to be seen once again in Dutch waters. But what happens after that? Will the Dutch industry have to wait another five years of inactivity, or worse, even longer?

In September 2013 the Government signed the ‘Energie akkoord’ in which 4.5GW of offshore wind capacity and at the same time a reduction of subsidies is targeted to be realised by 2023. The government is now looking into how to realise this target. Through the ‘Government framework vision on Wind Energy at Sea’ three main areas are addressed, identification of development zones and areas, the possibilities for offshore wind development within the twelve mile zone and a review of the current tender process within the SDE regulations in order to make it more efficient and therefore more attractive for developers.

Just before this edition was published the Dutch Government made an official announcement in which it identified three large offshore wind development sites being at Borssele, off the coast of South Holland and a third off the coast of North Holland. These are to replace the remaining, smaller wind farms that were consented in 2009. In this new strategy a subsidy will automatically be granted to the winner of the development license, previously organised in two separate processes. The state- owned TSO TenneT will be responsible for connecting the wind farm to the onshore grid. This strategy should lead to cost reduction of € three billion over 15 years. Work could start on Borssele in 2015 followed two years later by the other two wind farms.

But, once again, will this change in Government policy provide the right conditions for the industry? All will depend on the willingness of investors to invest in these projects. Or will the companies active in offshore wind once again J rely mainly on the wind farms to be built outside m of Dutch waters?

Sabine Lankhorst