News
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April 26, 2010
Repair activities to be continued
Recently, the work ship ‘VOS Sympathy’ sailed into the port of IJmuiden. This upcoming period the ship will be used for repairs to the wind park. But first, the ship will be fitted out with the appropriate materials and tools.
Earlier inspections showed that some minor clearance has arisen in the vertical direction between the foundation pile and the transition piece. Last year in December three monopiles have been repaired. In collaboration with Bouwcombinatie Egmond we worked out a repairs plan, which will now be rolled out for the other 33 wind turbines.
The foundation piles will be filled up with concrete. This will form a solid basis and will prevent a further shifting. For this purpose, the ship will be equipped with concrete silos and pumps, among other equipment. We expect that the work at sea will start in a few weeks time.
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November 03, 2009
‘Sea Energy’ sailed into the port of IJmuiden
This week, the work ship ‘Sea Energy’ sailed into the port of IJmuiden. This upcoming period the Sea Energy will be used for repairs to the wind park. But first, the ship will be fitted out with the appropriate materials and tools.
Earlier inspections showed that some minor clearance has arisen in the vertical direction between the foundation pier and the transition piece. In collaboration with Bouwcombinatie Egmond we worked out a repairs plan, which will now be rolled out.
The foundation piers of three turbines will be filled up with concrete. This will form a solid basis and will prevent a further shifting. For this purpose, the ship will be equipped with concrete silos and pumps, among other equipment. We expect that the work at sea will start in a few weeks time.
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November 20, 2008
Work in progress
In the second half of 2007, a problem was detected in the wind turbine gearboxes. To prevent further damage and ensure continued production, these gearboxes were replaced by Vestas Wind Systems a/s, the manufacturer of the wind turbine generators. Meanwhile a modified type of gearbox has become available which will ultimately be retrofitted to every wind turbine. This replacement project is handled by Vestas under the contractual guarantee and will continue into 2009. The work is being carried out from a crane vessel that can sometimes be seen at work in the wind farm.
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October 30, 2008
No indications additional mortality porpoises
Imares conducted research on effects of pile driving on harbour porpoises during the execution phase of the Off shore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee project. The research did not show indications of additional mortality of harbour porpoises.
The report draws the following conclusions:
The building of the first offshore wind farm in Dutch waters off the coast near Egmond aan Zee was a complex enterprise and timing of critical phases was aimed at optimizing the probability of good weather (low seastates). A swell of 1 m or more would prevent pile driving and therefore this part of the building process took place in spring/summer. By coincidence, this is also the time of year when porpoise presence is minimal in the general area and this will have contributed to a lower probability of impacting porpoises. Second, a ramp-up procedure and a pinger were always followed, so that any porpoises in the vicinity were given the chance to flee to safe(r) distances before full hammering power was applied. Third, the sheer presence of the pile-driving ship, the very large Svanen, that was working in the area many hours before the actual pile driving to anchor itself at the exact required position was already a ramp-up procedure in itself. No porpoises were seen during three lengthy visits to the site by scientists, during three pile driving events (Leopold & Camphuysen 2007) and there was no indication form numbers and locations of strandings that any additional mortality has been caused by the pile driving for the Off shore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee.
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October 11, 2007
Under construction
Starting today, maintenance operations are conducted on some of the off-shore wind turbines near Egmond aan Zee. The Danish turbine supplier Vestas will carry out the work. For technical reasons gearboxes of 9 turbines will be replaced in the next few weeks. The current expectation for the maintenance operations is to last for about 4 weeks (depending on weather conditions). There will be no impacts on consumers.
Offshore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee is a demonstration project applying innovative turbines in a difficult offshore environment.
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April 18, 2007
Crown Prince inaugurates first Dutch wind farm in the North Sea
Today, HRH the Prince of Orange accompanied by fourteen schoolchildren from Egmond aan Zee officially inaugurated the Netherlands’s first wind farm in the North Sea. Blowing together into the special tube, the turbines started to turn, inaugurating the Netherlands’ cleanest power plant. The Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Farm was constructed by Nuon and Shell on the initiative of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The wind farm has actually been operational since the beginning of this year and has exhibited excellent performance to date. Thanks in part to the stormy weather of the first three months of 2007, during which there has been a great deal of wind, more than 111 million kilowatt hours of electricity have been produced. This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 33,000 households.
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April 16, 2007
Alderman opens NoordzeeWind Information Centre
The NoordzeeWind Information Centre was opened during a festive gathering on Monday 16 April by the alderman for Economic Affairs of the municipality of Bergen, Mr J. Mesu.
The alderman said what a fantastic centre it had become and stressed the role that the centre can play in getting children interested in a sustainable future. Huub den Rooijen, director of NoordzeeWind, also referred to the enormous contribution that wind energy plays in making the energy supply more sustainable.
VVV Director E.P. Oud said that he was pleased with the combination of the Information Centre and the VVV office in Egmond.
The Information Centre and the VVV received a record number of visitors in the first ten days – as many as 2000 people came along!
The NoordzeeWind Information Centre shows how the farm was built, how it affects its environment, how energy is actually generated and how wind energy works.
The Information Centre is located in the VVV office, Voorstraat 82 a, Egmond aan Zee, and can be visited free of charge.
J. Mesu, E.P. Oud, H. den Rooijen
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December 11, 2006
Information pillar at Egmond aan Zee
At the main entrance to the beach at Egmond aan Zee stands an information pillar. This pillar is used by the VVV to provide information on things that are worth seeing and knowing about Egmond and the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm. A PC has been built into the pillar and the websites of the VVV and the wind farm can be viewed via a touch screen. Our aim is to tell local residents, visitors and tourists more about the immediate surroundings.
NoordzeeWind and the VVV, together with the municipality of Bergen, are working on setting up an information centre about the wind farm and sustainable initiatives in the municipality. It will be located in the VVV shop in Voorstraat, Egmond aan Zee. The information centre is expected to be opened in the spring of 2007.
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October 5, 2006
First delivery of clean electricity
Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Farm deliverd first kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to households in the Netherlands. Construction work is still under way on the wind farm, but some of the turbines are already generating power. All 36 wind turbines have now been erected and will be be extensively tested in the coming months. The wind farm is expected to be fully operational at the end of this year.
Further work to complete the installation will continue until the end of this year. A
protective layer of rock is being deposited on the sea bed round the foundation piles
on which the turbines have been constructed. At the same time the finishing touches
are being put to the electrical connection between the remaining wind turbines and the transformer substation on land in the vicinity of Wijk aan Zee.
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August 31, 2006
Final turbine in place
The installation of the wind turbines has been completed: 36 of them are ready to harness the wind.
Following a period of bad weather, it was only on Saturday 26 August that the final turbine could be lifted into place.
Work is now focused on the cabling between the wind turbines. The next step will be to test the turbines.
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August 10, 2006
Underwater noise measurements
As part of the monitoring and evaluation programme experts from Imares IJmuiden (formerly Rivo) have measured the local underwater noise levels. Before construction started and during some of the pile-driving operations an underwater microphone was suspended from a ship at precisely determined locations. A computer recorded the signals so they could be analysed.
The characteristics of the seabed are not the same at each wind turbine location, so the energy needed to drive a foundation pile into the ground is not the same everywhere. The pile-driving operations where readings were taken were determined specifically with the aim of establishing the effect that the location has on the noise level of the pile-driving.
Separate reports will appear with the results of the surveys before and during the construction. They will be published later this year.
The following underwater noise measurements will be carried out when the wind farm is in service. The ultimate aim of the noise survey is to determine the effect the noise made underwater by the wind farm has on the wildlife in the vicinity.
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August 2, 2006
All 36 foundation piles in place
Last Friday 28 July the final foundation pile was put into place. The 36th foundation pile was driven into the sea bed in one hour by the Svanen. Then the transition piece was mounted onto the pile.
The work of the heavy lifting vessel Svanen on this project has thereby come to an end.
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July 26, 2006
Avian research during construction
In the context of the Monitoring and Evaluation programme avian research is carried out during the offshore construction work.
Driving the foundation piles causes noise below and above the water. This could be harmful to especially diving birds, and birds that stay above water could be scared off as well. Scientists from Imares and Nioz were present during three pile driving operations to see how the seabirds reacted to the pile driving. They sailed in their own vessel inside and outside the area of the wind farm during the pile driving and counted the birds.
The pile driving only began in mid-April so few, if any, diving birds were to be found around the construction site. These birds had already left our waters and migrated to their breeding area’s. There were gulls and terns to be seen, but there did not appear to be a connection between their behaviour and the pile driving operations.
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July 26, 2006
Final foundations
The pile driving work is almost over. Of the 36 foundations, 33 have already been driven into the sea bed. The heavy lifting vessel Svanen is now driving the 34th pile. The installation of the turbines themselves is making speedy progress. Twenty-six wind turbines can already be seen on the horizon.
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July 6, 2006
Update on construction progress
14 wind turbines, 19 foundations, 2 electric cables from the farm to the shore: that is how things stand on 5 July. Because of the good weather conditions offshore work has proceeded almost uninterrupted in the last two weeks.
The correct position for each foundation is selected with great care. Measurements are taken regularly during pile-driving to ensure that the pile is completely vertical. Practice makes perfect. Pile-driving a foundation and putting a transition piece into place is now taking an average of 2 to 3 days. The time needed to complete a whole wind turbine is around 2 days.
The farm is being connected to the transformer sub-station on shore by means of three 34-kV electric cables. The third cable will have been sunk into the sea bed by the end of this week. The work on the beach south of Wijk aan Zee will have been completed by then as well and the beach will once again be fully accessible.
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June 21, 2006
Cabling work onshore and offshore
Three electric cables, which will connect the wind farm to the electricity grid, are being laid under the sea bed. They will link the wind farm to the transformer sub-station.
To lay the cables, one end of the cables must first be pulled to the shore from the cable laying vessel ‘Team Oman’. The ship then sails to the wind farm, paying out the cable. At the same time the cable is sunk in the sea bed to a depth that varies from 1.5 to more than 3 metres.
During the process of laying the cables from the shore to the wind farm, the cables will cross three existing telecommunication cables. Concrete mattresses have been laid at these crossing points to protect the telecommunication cables. Subsequently the new cables will also be covered with mattresses.
Each of the three cables is around 15.5 kilometres in length.
On the beach to the south of Wijk aan Zee the cable will be pulled through conduit pipes under the dunes to the transformer sub-station. These pipes were laid under the dunes in 2005.
The testing of the cables can begin once they have been connected in the transformer sub-station.
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June 6, 2006
First turbine at sea
On Sunday June 4, the first wind turbine has been installed at sea. Sea Energy, the ship of A2Sea, installed the tower on the foundation. The nacelle with two blades was placed on top of the tower. Last the third blade was attached to the nacelle.
It all sounds easy, but the job is quite complicated. Over 15 assemblers and mechanics worked for 36 hours to install the first wind turbine.
With this first wind turbine the wind farm becomes visible. In the coming months you can watch the installation of the turbines from the shore.
As happened the last few days both heavy lift vessels will be working on sea at the same time. The Svanen installs the foundations and the Sea Energy installs the turbines on the foundations. Both vessels transport the components from the harbour to the offshore site accompanied by tugboats.
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June 2, 2006
Turbines ready for installation
At the harbour in IJmuiden the outline of turbines become visible. Components such as blades, towers and turbines arrived from different locations. Assembly of the components has started. The components of the towers are put together to a tower of 55 metres high.
Two blades are constructed to the nacelle. The nacelle with the two blades is called the bunny ear configuration. The third blade will be attached to the nacelle at sea.
Soon the first turbine will be installed at sea. The Ship Sea Energy of A2Sea installs the turbine at the foundation and lifts the nacelle onto the tower. At that moment the tower has a height of 70 metres.
The Sea Energy transports two towers, two bunny ears and two blades at a time to sea.
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June 2, 2006
Grid connection transformer sub-station completed
At June 1 the grid connection of the transformer sub-station has been completed.
The transformer sub-station of NoordzeeWind is connected to Continuon’s national electricity grid by a seven-kilometre long underground high voltage cable. From the transformer sub-station electricity can be transported to the national grid.
Next step is the connection between the wind farm and the transformer sub-station. Three electric cables will be laid under the sea bed.
Currently this special electric cable is being transported by ship from Italy.
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May 9, 2006
Supply components wind turbines
The first components of towers, turbines & blades arrived. At this moment components for 9 turbines arrived at the harbour in IJmuiden.
The blades with a length of 45 metres are produced in Germany and transported by truck.
This remarkable transport is done out of rush hour to diminish traffic problems. The blades arrive around midnight. At the location the blades are stored by three on a rack to be assembled later.
The tower and turbines are transported by boat from Denmark.
The installation of the towers and turbines will start in June.
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May 9, 2006
Four foundations in place
As of Easter four foundation piles were driven for the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm. After a period of preparation the ship carrying a foundation pile and a transition piece set sail at mid April.
When it arrived at the location the Svanen dropped anchor. With the aid of the ship’s crane the foundation pile was place vertically on the sea bed; the pile driver was then lowered onto the pile so as to drive it approximately 30 metres into the sea bed. A transition piece, which clears the water by around 13 metres, is mounted onto the pile. Attached to this transition piece are work platforms, ladders and a berthing facility for boats.
The installation of the towers and turbines will start in June.
For more information about the construction
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April 12, 2006
Svanen in IJmuiden
The heavy lift vessel Svanen is lying in the new IJmond harbour in IJmuiden.
At the beginning of March the heavy lift vessel Svanen sailed from Schiedam to IJmuiden. The vessel, owned by Ballast Nedam, will be used to put in place the steel monopiles.
Bouwcombinatie Egmond, which will build the wind farm of 26 turbines this summer, is a partnership between Ballast Nedam and Vestas.
April 11, 2006
Transformer sub-station makes steady progress
A transformer sub-station is being built on the Reyndersweg in Wijk aan Zee to connect the wind farm to the electricity grid. Construction started in the autumn of 2005.
The construction of the transformer sub-station is making steady progress. Currently the electric cables are being laid inside the building and the switching equipment is being installed. Then the transformer will be installed. This will ensure that the electricity is converted to 150 kV.
