The lifting vessel Innovation was deployed on the Borssele I&II wind farms. (Photograph: DEME)
LEADING POSITION IN THE OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY SECTOR by Paul Schaap, PAS Publicaties
As is the case with the oil and gas industry, Dutch offshore contractors and their suppliers have succeeded in acquiring a leading global position in the engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of offshore wind farms. Dutch contractors not only deliver excellent performance on their home market, but thanks to their new and innovative techniques and remarkable vessels, they also set the pace elsewhere in the world, too. On the Dutch market, work is currently underway on the fast-paced installation of a series of large offshore wind farms, off the coast of the Netherlands. This work is the result of the Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030 laid out by the Dutch government, that provides for the completion of 11 GW of offshore wind farm capacity in Dutch coastal waters, by 2030. Within this same framework, the Borssele I&II wind farms (generating 752 MW) were completed in 2020, and III&IV (with a capacity of 731.5 MW), achieved an advanced stage of completion. Borssele I&II were laid out for Ørsted, 22 kilometres off the coast of Zeeland with the installation of 94 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbine by DEME
Offshore. DEME deployed its own installation vessels Innovation, Sea Installer and Sea Challenger for this work. Elsewhere, with its vessel the Nexus, Van Oord laid a total of 190 kilometres of inter-array cables, that were subsequently buried in the seabed by the trencher DigIt. For its part, Boskalis Subsea Cables & Flexibles took responsibility for laying the energy export cables to shore. The Borssele III&IV project has been developed by the Blauwwind consortium. 77 MHI Vestas wind turbines, each generating 9.5 MW have already been installed in this wind farm. For this project, Van Oord has been appointed what is known as the balance of plant contractor, deploying the Aeolus for the installation work, and the 2021 NETHERLANDS SUPPLIERS CATALOGUE
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