CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, has commissioned its 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, 18.5km offshore Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands.
The country will now achieve more than 4.5GW of offshore wind by the end of 2024.
Hollandse Kust Noord was built by CrossWind as a subsidy-free project. The project is expected to generate 3.3TWh of clean electricity annually, which is 2.8% of the Netherlands' electricity requirement and enough to supply one million Dutch households.
In combination with other offshore wind farms such as Borssele and Hollandse Kust Zuid, Hollandse Kust Noord can meet 15.8% of the country’s electricity needs.
The project is powered by 69 Siemens Gamesa’s SG11.0-200 direct drive offshore wind turbines, each with 11MW of capacity. Siemans will also provide service and maintenance for 15 years.
The wind farm's total area is 125km² and the turbines are spaced more than 1km apart.
Foundation work on the project was begun by offshore construction contractor Van Oord in October 2022, followed by the installation of the first turbine in April 2023.
The last turbine was installed in October 2023.
CrossWind director Tjalling de Bruin stated: “Our philosophy is 'We deliver, we innovate, we share,' and that is what we did. I am proud of the team and all the partners with whom we have safely developed this wind park in record time.
“We look forward to realising the innovations within the park that will help future wind parks always deliver electricity, even when the wind is not blowing, and we look forward to sharing this knowledge to accelerate the energy transition.”
