The Limburg-based industrial machinery manufacturing company, Sif Group, is manufacturing 70 monopiles for the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm (OWF), at their Maasvlakte site.

The 70 monopiles are ‘TP-less monopiles’, signifying that they do not require transition pieces. This results in faster installation and reduced cost. They will be made from 65 kilotonnes, or 6 500 metric tonnes, of steel. The monopiles each weigh 64.356 tonnes and measure 7 to 8,2 metres in diameter, and 74,5 metres in length. They will be installed at water depths of 15 to 28 metres. Once completed, they will be capable of producing a total of 759 MW of green energy, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year.

The Hollandse Kust Noord OWF is being developed by CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco. It is a subsidy-free offshore wind project, located 18.5 kilometres off the west coast of the Netherlands near the town of Egmond aan Zee. CrossWind plans to have Hollandse Kust Noord operational by 2023.

As of now, the first of the monopiles are ready to be picked up at the Sif Group manufacturing facility at the Maasvlakte, the reclaimed westward extension of the Europoort port, in the Port of Rotterdam. From there, they will be transported to the North Sea to support the 11 MW Siemens Gamesa turbines (SG 11.0-200 DD), which have a 200 metres rotor diameter, and a blade length of 97 metres. Due to these larger dimensions, the SG 11.0-200 DD delivers up to 40% more annual energy production (AEP) than its predecessor, the SG 8.0-167 DD.

Sif’s direct client is Van Oord, as the Dutch company was contracted for the balance of plant scope in 2020, meaning that its activities will encompass the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the foundations, inter-array cables and transportation and installation of the wind turbines. Cadeler will also assist. During the project, Van Oord will deploy three offshore installation vessels, the Aeolus, MPI Adventure and MPI Resolution, as well as the cable-laying vessel Nexus.

This announcement comes after the Dutch Government tripled its offshore wind targets in 2050 to 70 GW. It also comes after Sif Group’s involvement in the Hollandse Kust Zuid project. Previously, the Wind Osprey loaded out towers and blades for the Hollandse Kust Zuid project from Sif’s Maasvlakte site, and the Seaway Strashnov loaded out TP-less monopiles for the Hollandse Kust Zuid project.