Offshore construction on world’s largest wind farm starts next spring

Vattenfall plans to start offshore construction on the largest, and also the first subsidy-free offshore wind farm in the world, in the spring of 2021.

This is when the first foundations, produced by Sif Group, will be brought from the Maasvlakte in the Port of Rotterdam and installed at the 1.5 GW Hollandse Kust Zuid zone in the Dutch North Sea.

Subsea 7 is in charge of installing the wind farm’s 140 turbine foundations, as well as the inter-array cables which will be delivered by Prysmian and TKF. The installation of the foundations will continue until 2022.

Seabed mapping is currently ongoing at the wind farm zone to determine the most efficient design of the foundations for the wind turbines, the Swedish energy company said. The search for unexploded ordnance is also continuing.

Swire Blue Ocean’s jack-up Pacific Osprey will transport and install the first Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines in 2022, and the wind farm is scheduled to deliver first power by the end of that year.

Vattenfall plans to fully commission the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm in 2023.

The construction of the wind farm’s operations and maintenance base in the Port of IJmuiden will start in 2021. Around that time, Vattenfall will also start building a temporary facility to support the construction of the wind farm.