Van Oord has installed the first of 70 monopiles for the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm, in the Netherlands.
Contracted in 2020 by CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, Van Oord is now installing the monopiles 18.5 km off the west coast of the Netherlands near Egmond aan Zee.
This follows Van Oord’s installation of scour protection on the foundations to avoid erosion using its flexible fallpipe vessel, Nordnes. As balance of plant contractor, Van Oord will be deploying other vessels that will undertake necessary operations such as cable laying, trenching and installation. DEME’s Innovation vessel will also be working in collaboration with Van Oord to assist with the installation.
Roeland Ris, project director at Van Oord, said: “We are very pleased to have achieved this important milestone. Thanks to the committed and experienced project teams, the installation of the monopiles started about 10 weeks earlier than originally planned.”
The topside for the substation was recently transported by the vessel Orion, as HLPFI reported here.
