Van Oord’s freshly upgraded jack-up Aeolus is currently undergoing final preparations at the Port of Vlissingen, the Netherlands, prior to heading out to the Norther offshore wind farm to install the first monopile foundations.
Van Oord is the Balance of Plant contractor for the Norther project.
The company is in charge of the engineering, procurement, supply and installation of the 44 wind turbine foundations, the Offshore High Voltage Station (OHVS), inter-array and export cables, as well as the installation of the turbines.
Norther will feature 44 MHI Vestas V164-8.0 MW turbines optimised to be able to deliver a maximum output of 8.4MW.
Located some 23km from the port of Zeebrugge, the 370MW wind farm is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, when it will become Belgium’s largest wind farm.
The wind farm is being developed by Norther N.V., a special purpose company owned by Elicio and Boreas. Boreas is a joint venture between Eneco (25%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (25%).