The construction of the 759 MW Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Netherlands, has commenced with the first monopile installed. Van Oord will set up the project’s 70 monopiles at the HKN site, which is 18 kilometres offshore in Egmond aan Zee, over the upcoming months. By mid of 2023, the monopiles are expected to be installed. In order to build the wind farm, CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, will use a range of innovations, including floating solar panels and offshore hydrogen production.
Van Oord’s responsibilities as a contractor for the balance of the plant comprise designing, engineering, procuring, constructing, and installing the foundations, inter array cables, as well as transporting and installing the wind turbines. Reportedly, Van Oord has already installed scour protection using its flexible fallpipe vessel Nordnes to prevent erosion. The offshore installation vessel MPI Resolution, the cable-laying vessel Nexus, and the trencher Dig-It will all be deployed by Van Oord. Van Oord will collaborate with DEME, which will deploy its offshore installation vessel Innovation, to install the monopiles.
In March 2022, Netherlands stated that it would shortly issue a request for proposals for the construction of two new offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of 1,400 MW. The North Sea would be the site of the new projects. The Dutch government released laws detailing the procedure in the Government Gazette on March 9, 2022. According to the notification, wind farm lots 6 and 7 would each have a capacity of 700 MW. The two would be positioned 53 kilometres from the Dutch beaches in the west Hollandse Kust wind energy zone.
