The first of 69 wind turbines has been installed at the 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park at the North Sea, developed by CrossWind, a Shell and Eneco JV.
The wind park is expected to deliver first power to the Dutch grid by summer and be fully operational by the end of 2023.
CrossWind’s partners Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Van Oord are using the offshore installation vessel Scylla to transport and install the turbines.
Scylla sailed out with the first machine from the Eemshaven to the offshore HKN site last week and installed it on its foundation on April 15.
One Siemens Gamesa 11.0-200 DD wind turbine can generate up to 11MW.Once all 69 turbines are installed and commissioned, the Hollandse Kust Noord wind park will generate at least 3.3TWh per year.
The installation of the machines is taking place around the clock, seven days a week.
Wind turbine generator package manager at CrossWind Stefan Hartman said: “First the tower is installed on the monopile, then the nacelle on top of the tower. Then come the blades, which are usually the most critical lift with respect to weather conditions.
“Blade installation will commence if there is a sufficiently long-time window of windspeeds below 12 metres per second.For comparison, this is a windspeed at which it becomes hard to hold an umbrella.”
In the event of adverse weather conditions, construction work will be suspended.Weather permitting, the team onboard the Scylla can install one wind turbine in 24 hours.