Wind

World's largest wind farm on a lake commissioned in Netherlands

The 383MW Wind Farm Fryslan north of Amsterdam was held up by Covid and adverse weather

Wind Farm Fryslân on the Dutch Ijsselmeer Lake during construction
Wind Farm Fryslân on the Dutch Ijsselmeer Lake during constructionFoto: Ventolines

The world’s largest lake-based wind farm – the 383MW Wind Farm Fryslân project on the Ijsselmeer artificial lake north of Amsterdam – has been commissioned after Covid and weather-related delays.

“Last month, all wind turbines were inspected from foundation to nacelle, then tested and then put into operation,” the Windpark Fryslan Holding company said.

“The wind farm is now open to everyone and you can sail through the wind farm area.”

The installation by the Zuiderzeewind consortium composed of contractor Van Oord and turbine OEM Siemens Gamesa was supposed to be completed in the first half of this year, but had been postponed due to turbulent weather and the complex logistics of the project in combination with the coronavirus.

The array features 89 Siemens Gamesa SWT-DD-130 4.3MW onshore turbines that were installed in the shallow waters of the Ijsselmeer that made conventional installation vessels impossible.

Instead, Van Oord had to use a work platform for installation built on two pontoons the size of a soccer field, with added stabiliser legs. Due to the limited width of the locks around the IJsselmeer, the parts were shipped to the artificial lake and assembled there.

The province of Frisia in the north of the Netherlands owns a 15% minority stake in the wind farm that it hopes will contribute about 60% to its own wind energy targets.

Wind Farm Fryslân is the biggest in a series of fresh water wind projects that should push the global capacity of wind power on lakes to about 800MW early this decade. Projects are also under construction or in advanced development on lakes in Sweden and the US.

The project does not count towards the Netherlands’ target to boost its offshore wind capacity to around 4.5GW by 2023.

The country after that had been planning to expand its sea-based offshore wind capacity to 11.5GW by 2030, but now has started marine spatial planning procedures to almost double that target to 22GW by 2030-31.
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Published 13 December 2021, 09:03Updated 13 December 2021, 11:05
EuropeNetherlandsSiemens GamesaVan OordMarkets