In the coming years, Vattenfall will build a wind farm, Hollandse Kust Zuid 1 & 2 off the coast of The Hague and Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Dozens of researchers at the North Sea will be working day and night through the summer to learn as much as possible about the site where the wind farm will be erected.Using high-tech equipment, they are performing underwater scans to look for bombs and shipwrecks and map the sea floor. While the activities started in February, the storms Freya and Gareth played havoc with the schedule. The two research ships – with a total crew of thirty – were forced to anchor in Scheveningen harbour. Due to the turbulent weather, the research ships have to make the most of the calm periods in order to catch up.
Bibby HydroMap will perform the geophysical surveys and Fugro is carrying out the geotechnical surveys. The sea floor will be surveyed through to August using scanners. This will then be followed by the collection of soil samples. The survey results will be used to design the most effective foundations for the wind turbines, as well as the route of the cables that will be buried in the sand.
