Shell and Eneco Tap Van Oord for Dutch Offshore Wind Project | Offshore Wind - Offshore WIND
Shell and Eneco Tap Van Oord for Dutch Offshore Wind Project | Offshore Wind
Shell and Eneco Tap Van Oord for Dutch Offshore Wind Project
Ecowende, a joint venture of Shell and Eneco, has awarded Van Oord a contract for the construction of the 760 MW Hollandse Kust West VI offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.
As Ecowende’s contractor, Van Oord will be responsible for transporting and installing the foundations and will also lay, connect, and bury the cables between the wind turbines. In addition, Van Oord will be handling the transportation and installation of the wind turbines at sea.
The 760 MW offshore wind farm, for whose site the Ecowende joint venture won the permit in December 2022, is located 53 kilometres off the Dutch coast of IJmuiden and will comprise 54 wind turbines.
Earlier this year, the developer unveiled details for the offshore wind farm that will be in harmony with nature, which include measures and a design approach that will result in the project having minimal impact on birds, bats, and marine mammals.
Ecowende and Van Oord will collaborate on implementing various innovations, large-scale mitigations, and stimulating ecological measures. In addition, the parties will join forces in various feasibility studies and solution developments.
Van Oord will deploy its offshore installation vessel Boreas, currently being built, for the transport and installation of the foundations and wind turbines.
To minimise the noise of the wind farm’s construction, the company will deploy an alternative installation method for the foundations.
A vibro hammer, using vibrations will drive the monopiles to their required depths. According to Van Oord, this will be the first large-scale implementation of this innovative technique at a Dutch offshore wind farm.
The company’s cable-laying vessel Nexus will be deployed for the installation of the connecting inter-array cables between the wind turbines.
The wind farm’s operational capacity will make three per cent of the current Dutch electricity demand greener, said Van Oord. Ecowende plans to have the wind farm fully operational and commissioned in 2026.
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Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.