The Netherlands
Key role for Van Oord in leading Dutch projects
Marine and offshore company Van Oord has a key role in both major offshore wind projects now getting under way in the Netherlands, and is a shareholder and EPC contractor for the largest, the Gemini offshore windfarm
AS briefly highlighted in the ‘Digest’ section of the Second Quarter issue of OWJ – which was about to go to press as the deal was done – in May the shareholders in the huge Gemini offshore windfarm (headed by Canada’s Northland Power Inc) completed the innovative financing package for the project.
Financial close for Gemini, one of
two large projects now under way in the Netherlands – the second being the Luchterduinen offshore windfarm – saw the ground laid for €2.3 billion of the anticipated €2.8 billion cost of constructing the project. Apart from Northland, which has a 60 per cent shareholding, marine and offshore contractor Van Oord has a 10 per cent
equity stake in this project, Siemens Project Ventures has 20 per cent and HVC has 10 per cent. At the same time that the financing was finally put in place for the project, Van Oord, which will play an important role in Gemini and Luchterduinen, signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract for Gemini in the amount of more than €1.3 billion. The company is the ‘balance-of- plant contractor’ for Gemini, and is responsible for all of the engineering, procurement, and construction of the entire windfarm, and all of the electrical infrastructure, including an onshore high voltage station, two offshore substations, and all of the cables. The origins of the Gemini date back
Van Oord’s purpose-designed installation vessel Aoelus will play a key role in the Gemini and Luchterduinen projects
to 2009, when the Dutch authorities granted three permits for future offshore windfarms: Buitengaats (300 megawatts, MW), Clearcamp (275MW) and ZeeEnergie (300MW), all of which were acquired by Typhoon Offshore in July 2011. Project Gemini includes the Buitengaats and ZeeEnergie projects, which were granted a subsidy (SDE) by the Dutch government in 2010 (the SDE will be available to the project based on MW/hr produced, only after successful construction and completion of the project). The third of the above- mentioned projects, which currently does not have a subsidy, may be used to test new offshore wind technology in future. Project Gemini is located in an
area with excellent wind conditions – up to 10m/s – and water depths ranging from 28m to 36m. The total installed capacity of 600MW will produce electricity for the equivalent of approximately 785,000 households (which is nearly equivalent to the number of people living in the three northern provinces of the Netherlands) and equates to a reduction in emissions
of 1,250,000 tonnes of CO2. The wind turbine generators will be installed on monopile foundations and connected to two offshore transformer platforms. When completed, Gemini will be
the largest windfarm in the North Sea and the second largest offshore windfarm in the world. With a 15-year revenue contract with the Dutch and a 15-year operations and maintenance contract place with Siemens, the developers of the project hope to take advantage of many lessons learned on other projects in northwest Europe in order to eliminate some potential problems and speed construction. One such problem has been grid connection delays by local transmission utilities so the Gemini approach is for the developers to build their own connection; another lesson learned is that a multi-contract approach can have significant interface risks, so Gemini has adopted a simpler, two-
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