Vattenfall starts construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm

Vattenfall wants to enable fossil-free living within one generation. Wind plays an important role in realising these ambitions. The company currently operates over 1200 wind turbines and has eight wind farms under construction, both onshore and offshore.

The construction works for Hollandse Kust Zuid start with the installation of monopile foundations. Each foundation is designed specifically for the location where it will be installed. The heaviest and largest monopile weighs 955 t and is 75 m long, while the lightest and shortest foundation still weighs 735 t and is 62 m long. The monopiles will be installed in water depths varying from 17 - 28 m.

An installation vessel transports the foundations to their offshore location and positions itself at the exact location. The ship's crane then lifts the monopile into the water and lowers it until it reaches the seabed at a depth of 17 - 28 m. Once the foundation is in position on the seabed, a hydraulic hammer is used to drive the pile to the desired depth.

“Over the next few months, we will already install dozens of foundations”, says project director Ian Bremner. “During the winter there is a scheduled break, as sea and weather conditions are often too poor to work safely. In the spring of 2022, construction will resume, and we will install the remaining foundations followed by inter array cables and turbines. The first turbines are currently scheduled to be commissioned in the spring of 2022, with all turbines expected online by summer of 2023.”

Vattenfall is building Hollandse Kust Zuid together with its recently announced partner BASF. The wind farm will be located approximately 18 km off the coast of The Hague and Zandvoort, the Netherlands, with the furthest turbines located 36 km offshore. When fully operational, Hollandse Kust Zuid will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. The 140 turbines have a combined installed capacity of 1.5 GW.

Vattenfall will make a significant part of the fossil-free electricity generated by the wind farm available to Dutch households and small businesses. BASF will use its part of the production to implement innovative, low-emission technologies at several of its production sites in Europe.

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