Fugro to survey Nederwiek wind farm sites offshore Netherlands

Fugro has been awarded two geotechnical investigation contracts for the development of the Dutch Nederwiek wind farm sites II & III (noord).

The contracts, awarded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), are part of the Dutch government’s Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030/31, which aims to accelerate the development of offshore wind in the Netherlands.

Once completed, the wind farms will deliver a total installed capacity of approximately 4 GW.

The contracts cover a total area of 600 km2 and involve the collection of comprehensive seabed and subsurface Geo-data.

The data will be used by wind farm developers as input for preliminary engineering design studies and future tenders, and will also be available for power cable design, archaeology and marine biology investigations.

Fieldwork is scheduled to start in February 2024 and will be conducted using Fugro’s specialised fleet of advanced geotechnical vessels for seabed testing and downhole drilling.

These vessels will be equipped with Fugro’s SEACALF® Mk V Deepdrive system for seabed cone penetration testing and WISON® Mk V Ecodrive for downhole sampling and cone penetration testing. In addition to this, onboard laboratory capacity will be increased to ensure faster processing of results. The subsequent laboratory testing will take place in Fugro’s extended laboratories in the UK and Belgium.

Peter-Paul Lebbink, RVO’s Coordinator Soil Characterisation, said: “With the award of this geotechnical site investigation, RVO will collect another large-scale geotechnical data set, now within the Nederwiek wind farm (noord). The investigation area is planned for 4 GW of offshore wind, which will be of significant importance for the energy transition in the Netherlands.”

The data collected by Fugro will be managed through VirGeo®, Fugro’s cloud-based Geo-data engagement platform, and will provide near real-time deliverables to RVO and its consulting engineers. The subsequent phases of further processing, laboratory testing, data analysis, and reporting will continue into 2025.

Sven Plasman, Fugro’s Project Director and Government Relationship Manager, said: “This is a significant vote of confidence in our capabilities and our commitment to support the Netherlands’ energy transition. Our work will help to ensure that the Netherlands can meet its climate goals and continue to be an example in the field of offshore wind energy. We are proud to play a role in this important work and we look forward to working with RVO to deliver on these contracts.”

The 2 GW Nederwiek Noord II and III are to be auctioned off in 2026 and are scheduled for commissioning in 2030 and 2031, respectively.