The first of 70 monopiles for the 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, located 18.5km off the west coast of the Netherlands near Egmond aan Zee, has been installed 10 weeks earlier than originally planned, according to Van Oord, the balance of plant contractor for the project.
To avoid erosion, Van Oord has already installed scour protection using its flexible fallpipe vessel Nordnes, it said, adding that it expected to have all 70 monopile foundations installed over the next few months. To get that done, it is teaming up with DEME, which will deploy its offshore installation vessel Innovation.
The subsidy-free wind farm is being developed by Crosswind, a joint venture between Shell and Belgian utility Enerco. It is due to be fully operational by 2023.
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