MHI Vestas has successfully installed the last turbine for the Borssele 3 & 4 offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.
The final set of turbines, which are located around 14 miles off the coast of the Dutch province of Zeeland, will now undergo commissioning and testing in preparation for full power generation, which is expected next year.
Following full commissioning, MHI Vestas holds a 15 year service agreement to operate and maintain the project.
During installation, engineers had to contend with a multitude of “Covid-related challenges”, while the impact of adverse weather was also “significantly higher” than statistically expected.
As a result the project narrowly missed its original completion date of October.
Borssele 3 & 4 is made up of 77 MHI Vestas V164-9.5 megawatt (MW) and will have a total installed capacity of 731.5 MW, enough to power up to 2.3% of total Dutch electricity demand.
The project is being developed by the Blauwwind consortium, consisting of Partners Group, Shell, Eneco, Diamond Generating Europe and Van Oord.
Laurens van Pijkeren, MHI Vestas project director, said: “While installing turbines at Borssele III/IV, we have overcome a number of challenges arising from COVID.
“Not only have we needed to adjust our way of working on the installation vessel, but even the transport of technicians to the project has been an international challenge.
“Therefore, we are very pleased and proud to safely install all 77 V164 turbines on time and to now prepare for the full commissioning of this significant project for the Netherlands.”
Roeland Borsboom, project director and chief executive for Blauwwind: said: “Good project execution starts with great preparation and planning; the start date of turbine installation was picked in 2017 and happened precisely on that day in May this year.
“Overcoming many additional challenges in this extraordinary year required even more collaboration between all key parties, and led to a successful completion of the installation phase.
“A big thank you is well deserved, and when the commissioning is completed we will formally launch Full Operations. Blauwwind looks forward to the continued partnership with MHI Vestas in the operational life of the project.”
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