Van Oord has completed installing and burying inter-array cables at CrossWind’s Hollandse Kust Noord wind park, in the Netherlands.
Van Oord’s cable-laying vessel Nexus and trencher Dig-It (pictured), a remotely-operated vehicle operated from vessel Subsea Viking, installed the network of 69 inter-array lines measuring 140km at the project.
The wires are used for connecting the offshore wind turbines and transmitting electricity from the site 18.5km off the coast, near the seaside resort of Egmond aan Zee.
Van Oord designed a 66kV inter-array grid for the Hollandse Kust Noord to guarantee reliable and safe transmission of the generated electricity. Dutch manufacturer TKF supplied the wires.
Nexus, equipped with a large 5,000 tonnes capacity cable carousel, installed the inter-array cables. Dig-It subsequently buried the cables to the required depth of between 1 metre and 1.5 metres. The machine, a Tracked Remotely Operated Vehicle, can be used for burying wires in “jetting mode” for sandy soils and “chain cutter mode”‘ for harder soils. At the Hollandse Kust Noord project, both modes were used successfully.