A consortium of sellers, including Van Oord, has sold its shares in the 19MW Borssele V wind farm to Octopus Energy Generation.
Van Oord’s decision to sell its interest in the Borssele V wind farm is in line with its strategy of recycling capital for future projects once its financial support is no longer required.
The same strategy was recently applied on Borssele III/IV.
The Borssele V offshore wind farm consists of two large Vestas wind turbines and is located in the 1.5GW Borssele wind farm cluster in the North Sea.
Borssele V has been operational since 2021 and is operated by Eneco.
Dutch green energy company Vandebron is the offtaker, supplying the green power generated by the wind farm to customers in the Netherlands.
The wind farm creates enough energy to power 25,000 homes a year, offsetting 16,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, equal to taking 10,000 petrol cars off the road.
One of the innovations employed at the project is the slip joint, a new way to secure turbine foundations.
The development of the slip joint was supported by government funding and the innovation promises to change the future of the wind turbine installation industry by significantly reducing both installation costs and time, Van Oord said.
The successful sale of Borssele V is the next step in Van Oord’s offshore wind strategy, as it will seek to offer the innovative slip joint solution on a larger scale in new tenders.
Van Oord will monitor and analyse the behaviour of the slip joint for an additional six years as it continues to study and improve the technology.
Other innovations at Borssele V that have proved successful are tests on integrating biodiversity into future wind farms.
This knowledge is valuable for nature conservation and will be applied in future projects, Van Oord said.