The Netherlands – The Dutch Borssele V wind farm has been sold to Octopus Energy Generation, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy investors, by a group of sellers including Van Oord.
Innovations demonstrated in Borssele V, including the first submerged slip joint, a new method for securing turbine foundations, and technologies that promote marine biodiversity around wind turbine systems, have been sold.
Located in the 1.5 GW Borssele wind farm cluster in the North Sea, the Borssele V offshore wind farm (19 MW) consists of two large Vestas wind turbines, each as tall as the Maastoren in Rotterdam. Eneco has been running Borssele V since 2021, when it was completed. It is Vandebron that is the offtaker, supplying green power generated by the wind farm to Dutch consumers. 25,000 homes could be powered by the wind farm each year, eliminating 16,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of removing 10,000 gasoline-powered cars from the road.
The slip joint, a new method of securing turbine foundations, is one of the innovations. It is anticipated that the slip joint, which was developed with the help of government funding, will have a significant impact on wind turbine installation in the future by reducing installation costs and time.
Van Oord stays involved
It is Van Oord’s next step in its offshore wind strategy after the sale of Borssele V, in which it plans to offer the innovative slip joint solution in new tenders. Van Oord will continue to study and improve the technology by monitoring and analyzing the behavior of the slip joint for an additional six years.
Borssele V also tested the integration of biodiversity into future windfarms, which was a success. Nature conservation will benefit from this information, and it will be used in future projects. With its strategy of recycling capital for future projects once its financial support is no longer required, Van Oord has decided to sell its interest in the Borssele V wind farm. On Borssele III/IV, the same strategy was used.
