First floating solars arrive in Port of Amsterdam for installation at North Sea offshore wind farm

The first floating solars for the Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) offshore solar farm have arrived at the Port of Amsterdam, set for installation at the Dutch CrossWind HKN offshore wind farm.

Planned for a 2025 installation, the Hollandse Kust Noord solar farm is expected to be what the company described as “the largest offshore solar farm” in the North Sea.

The company’s floating technology, tested under North Sea conditions for four years, has demonstrated resilience in such environments, making the floating solars what Oceans of Energy describes as “only in the world”  with an operational track record in harsh offshore waters.

Supported by the European Commission and the Dutch Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, the deployment highlights a model for future offshore energy integration, combining solar with wind and hydrogen energy production, the Dutch company said.

Oceans of Energy will transport the floaters in 7 MW batches via the IJmuiden sea sluice using light-spec vessels, reducing the need for heavy-lift equipment. 

“The Port of Amsterdam is well suited to deploy our system. As we have demonstrated in Belgium earlier this year, our modular system is fast and easy to assemble: it is a matter of only days to assemble a full offshore system from factory into the water,” Oceans of Energy said.

CrossWind’s Hollandse Kust Noord project is a 759 MW offshore wind project that will use technologies and engineering solutions to improve the flexibility of offshore wind farms.

The project has many first-offs, including being the first wind farm in the world with an offshore combination of battery storage and round-trip green hydrogen produced from offshore wind power on a megawatt scale. Once constructed, the offshore wind farm will be generating at least 3.3 TWh of clean energy per year.

Oceans of Energy was awarded the contract for installing and operating an offshore solar farm inside the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park in April 2023.

Earlier this year, Oceans of Energy collaborated with WavEC on an EU joint industry project (JIP). In that project, floating solar technology is aimed at being scaled up to standard formats of 150 MW, enabling the building of gigawatt-scale farms.