The Blauwwind consortium has achieved financial close on the Borssele III & IV offshore wind farms in the Netherlands, moving the project to the construction phase, with the main offshore works due to start in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Van Oord will execute the Balance of Plant (BoP) for the project, consisting of the engineering, procurement and construction of the foundations and inter-array cables. The offshore substation Borssele Beta will be designed and constructed by TenneT. MHI Vestas will supply 77 of its V164 9.5MW wind turbines.
With a total installed capacity of 731.5MW, Borssele III & IV will be capable of powering some 825,000 households once fully operational. The project is expected to be commissioned in early 2021 and produce 3,000GWh per year.
The consortium partners are Partners Group (45%), Shell (20%), DGE (15%), Eneco Group (10%) and Van Oord (10%).
Shell and Eneco Group have also secured 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) from the consortium, under which each will buy 50% of the power generated by the wind farms.