With the first monopile being installed on October 17, the construction on the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm has officially kicked off. The 70 monopiles that will be installed by Van Oord over the coming months will form the foundations of the wind turbines in the wind farm, which will be located some eighteen kilometres off the coast at Egmond aan Zee.

Wind farm owner CrossWind will be implementing several innovations in the construction of the wind farm, such as offshore hydrogen production and floating solar panels. These innovations will enable this first smart wind farm in the Netherlands to contribute significantly to accelerating the energy transition.

Tjalling de Bruin, Crosswind’s CEO and project director of Hollandse Kust Noord, said, “This is the first step towards the realisation of a total installed capacity of 759 MW by the end of 2023 when the wind farm will come on stream. This corresponds to the production of at least 3.3 TWh of green energy per year, with which we can fulfil some 2.8 percent of the electricity demand in the Netherlands. I am extremely proud of being able contribute to accelerating the energy transition and improving the security of supply in this way together with the CrossWind team.”

Smart wind farm

The wind turbines that will be installed on the monopiles will be part of the first smart wind farm in the Netherlands. Tjalling de Bruin explains, “The wind doesn’t always blow equally hard everywhere. How do you ensure that green electricity can still be supplied even when wind speeds are low? Together with our partners, we are exploring five different innovations designed to meet these challenges. In this way we are trying to ensure that future offshore wind farms will form a constant power supply regardless of how hard the wind blows, and helping to keep the electricity grid stable.”

24/7

Construction work is taking place seven days a week, 24 hours a day. In adverse weather conditions, such as high waves and strong winds, work may be stopped so as not to endanger the safety of employees at sea. The installation of the monopiles is expected to be completed by mid-2023.