Ecowende, a joint venture of Shell and Eneco, has awarded a contract to Van Oord for the construction of the 760 MW offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (west) lot VI.
As Ecowende's contractor, Van Oord will be responsible for transporting and installing the foundations.
The Dutch offshore installation firm 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.
Ecowende and Van Oord announced their collaboration back in September, on what the partners deemed as ‘the most ecological wind farm yet, with minimal impact on the natural habitat of birds, bats and marine mammals, and with a thriving underwater world’.
As part of the project, Van Oord will deploy its brand-new offshore installation vessel Boreas, currently being built, for the transport and installation of the foundations and turbines.
To minimize the noise of the construction of the wind farm, Van Oord said it will deploy an alternative installation method for the foundations, featuring a vibro hammer that will drive the monopiles to their required depths.
This will be the first large-scale implementation of this innovative technique at a Dutch offshore wind farm. Van Oord’s cable laying vessel Nexus will be deployed for the installation of the connecting inter-array cables between the wind turbines.
The Ecowende wind farm (Hollandse Kust (west) lot VI) will be located about 53 kilometers off the Dutch coast, near IJmuiden.
The wind farm’s operational capacity will make 3% of the current Dutch electricity demand greener.
Ecowende plans to have the wind farm fully operational and commissioned in 2026.