Commercial operation starts for a total of 731.5 MW offshore wind farms in Netherlands

The offshore wind complex Borselle III and IV with a combined capacity of 731.5 MW has started its commercial operation in the North Sea, off the coast of the Netherlands.

The construction of the 731.5 MW wind farm, with a total of 77 V164-9.5 Vestas turbines, was completed on-time, with official commissioning on 6 January 2021.

The Blauwwind consortium, currently consisting of Partners Group, the global private markets firm (acting on behalf of its clients) (45%), Shell (20%), Diamond Generating Europe (15%), Van Oord (10%), and Eneco (10%), won the tender conducted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs in June 2016.

Financial completion and project sanction were achieved in June 2018, and the first monopile was installed in October 2019. The wind farm is expected to produce roughly 3,000-gigawatt hours (Gwh) per annum, which is equivalent to the annual power use of 825,000 Dutch households.

Shell Energy Europe Limited and Eneco have secured contracts to each sell 50% of the power produced. Maintenance and operations will be done from a permanently manned service operations vessel based in Oostende, Belgium.