Offshore wind development gains pace

Vattenfall, which is developing the Hollandse Kust Zuid windfarm, has become a member of Amsterdam IJmuiden Offshore Ports (AYOP) in order to increase its cooperation with regional companies during development.

Erik Hiensch, Vattenfall’s head of offshore operations & maintenance, said: “Hollandse Kust Zuid is the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm. This makes it a groundbreaking project, both for Vattenfall and for the Netherlands. Collaboration is essential to successfully build and operate this park. Membership in AYOP is in line with our ambition to collaborate with parties in the region on a project that everyone can be proud of.”

Long term connection

As a pioneer in offshore wind, Vattenfall has been located in the Port of IJmuiden for more than ten years, from where it operates a wind farm off the coast of Egmond together with Shell. In 2018 and 2019, Vattenfall won the permit to build Hollandse Kust Zuid via two subsidy-free tenders.

With an output of approximately 1500MW, this offshore windfarm, which is to be fully operational by 2023, will be the largest in the Netherlands.

In the run-up to the construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid, Vattenfall will expand its activities in IJmuiden, among other things by developing a new maintenance centre in collaboration with Seaport IJmuiden.

In addition, the company said it hopes to contribute knowledge and expertise to the AYOP network, which has the ambition to increasingly focus on the offshore energy transition.