The Dutch wind farm developer Ecowende, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, has placed an order for 52 V236-15.0 MW wind turbines for the Ecowende wind farm at Hollandse Kust (west) site VI. Once installed, Vestas will service the wind farm under a 15-year service contract.
Ecowende adheres to the high qualitative criteria set out in the non-price focused tender from the Dutch government. This includes the creation of a bird corridor within the wind farm layout, increasing the hub height to create more vertical space for birds as well as integrating bird and bat detection and deterrence systems into the turbine design.
As Ecowende's contractor, Van Oord will be responsible for transporting and installing the foundations. Van Oord will also lay, connect and bury the cables between the wind turbines. Finally, Van Oord will be handling the transportation and installation of the wind turbines at sea. Van Oord will deploy its brand-new offshore installation vessel Boreas, currently being built, for the transport and installation of the foundations and turbines.
The project has a grid connection capacity of 760 MW and an excess capacity of 20 MW to use the connection capacity as efficiently as possible. The wind farm will be constructed about 53 kilometres off the Dutch coast, near IJmuiden. Turbine installation at sea is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026. The plan is to commission the wind farm by the end of 2026.
