MHI Vestas, Jan De Nul Group and Parkwind have completed turbine installation on schedule at the 219MW Northwester 2 offshore wind farm off the coast of Belgium.
Northwester 2 comprises 23 MHI Vestas V164-9.5MW machines and is the first project to use the hardware in commercial operation.
Installation started in December 2019 and, following a good start, exceptionally adverse weather in the first months slowed the work down, Jan De Nul said.
A second vessel, the Scylla, was deployed in mid-March to operate in parallel with Jan De Nul’s Vole au Vent to accelerate installation, the company said.
Parkwind project director Peter Caluwaerts said: “Upon securing a second installation vessel to make up for the time lost in the first months of the year, the Covid-19 crisis broke out threatening to undo all our efforts.
“However, the extraordinary dedication we witnessed from the different teams, in the midst of an unprecedented context and with all additional safety measures, has been humbling.
“We are grateful towards all our stakeholders who have supported us in reaching this stage. We now confidently look towards the completion of our wind farm.”
MHI Vestas chief operations officer Flemming Ougaard said: “We are pleased to have completed installation at Northwester 2, particularly during this challenging time related to Covid-19.
“The V164-9.5MW turbines we have utilised at this project are built on proven technology, and will reliably support this project for decades.”
Jan De Nul Group senior project manager for Northwester 2 Stan Logghe said: “A challenging project has now successfully been completed.
“We are proud of the team achievements, involving the foundation design and procurement as well as the installation works of these foundations, all cables and all WTG’s of the Northwester 2 wind farm.”
MHI Vestas will service the turbines at Northwester 2 for 15 years.
The wind farm is 70% owned by Parkwind, with Japanese industrial group Sumitomo Corporation owning the remaining 30%.
Parkwind will manage operations from the port of Ostend.