This is an important milestone for this special project, which is expected to supply green energy for approximately 500,000 Dutch households by 2021.
Wind Farm Fryslân is being built in the Frisian part of the IJsselmeer at Breezanddijk. Because of the shallows in the IJsselmeer and the limited width of the locks, it is not possible to work with standard offshore wind installation vessels.
That is why Van Oord built a unique work platform the size of half a soccer pitch, the so-called ‘Sarens Soccer Pitch’. This very large working platform hosts a giant crane that will lift and install the foundations. After that,
the working platform will also be used for installing the wind turbines.
In the next few months, contracting consortium Zuiderzeewind will be working seven days a week, 24 hours a day, on the installation of the foundations. Weather permitting, about two foundation piles will be driven into the bottom of the IJsselmeer every day.
Fryslân wind turbines will be placed in the IJsselmeer as a hexagon-shaped cluster to ensure that the visual impact is minimized as much as possible.
The wind park construction takes place in different phases. The first phase is the driving and installation of the 89 foundation piles into the bottom of the IJsselmeer. Next, underground cables will be installed in the soil between the foundation piles and the transformer station. Finally, the construction of the 89 wind turbines will start in the spring of 2021 and the Wind Farm will be put into operation in the summer of 2021.
Wind Farm Fryslân is being built by contractor consortium Zuiderzeewind, which consists of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Van Oord Offshore Wind.
Quick facts:
The wind farm includes eighty-nine 4.3MW wind turbines.
The resulting capacity of 382.7MW will enable Wind Farm Fryslân to provide green energy to approximately 500,000 households.
In addition to the 89 wind turbines in the IJsselmeer, a substation is being built at Breezanddijk and a construction island and nature reserve at Kornwerderzand is nearing completion.
The project claims to be the world’s largest wind farm in inland water.
