Installation of the anchoring system for what has been badged the world’s first floating offshore solar-wind project has been completed.
The project is located within the 759MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, located 22km off the Dutch coast in the North Sea and operated by Crosswind, a Shell and Eneco joint venture.
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The anchoring system, supplied by Dutch offshore PV specialist Oceans of Energy, will hold the 0.5MW PV system in place.
According to Oceans of Energy, the so-called HKN1 project represents the first large-scale offshore solar farm to be combined with an operational offshore wind farm.
The company said the solar system will be placed among the offshore wind turbines, allowing efficient use of the sea area and increased utilisation of the electrical infrastructure. Combining both wind and solar generation in one project addresses the intermittency problem with which they are often associated.
“The installation of the anchoring system is a huge milestone as it marks the first offshore installation works for this groundbreaking project,” said founder & CEO Allard van Hoeken. “This world’s first offshore solar project within an offshore wind farm demonstrates the enormous potential of combining offshore solar and offshore wind. This combination brings a more continuous flow of electricity to land and means a potential increase of energy output by up to five times, while using the same area of sea.”
Jeroen van Loon, offshore solar project manager for Crosswind, said: “The successful installation of the anchors marks a key milestone in the realisation of this pioneering offshore solar concept, surrounded by the wind turbines of Hollandse Kust Noord. The reliability of the anchoring system is critical, not only for the safety and stability of the floating solar park, but also to ensure it operates seamlessly alongside the surrounding wind turbines.”
Oceans of Energy and Crosswind also recently completed the necessary testing and delivery of the undersea cabling that will connect the combined solar/wind installation to the mainland.
With cabling approved and delivered and the anchoring system complete, commissioning of the project is slated for Q3 of 2025.
Offshore PV is a relatively nascent subset of the floating solar segment, but a few significant installations are beginning to emerge. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest offshore PV array announced to date is a 1GW system in China, built by the state-owned China Energy Investment Corporation off the coast of Shandong province.
Last year, an article by consultancy DNV in our quarterly journal, PV Tech Power, explored the considerable engineering and reliability challenges of open-sea PV arrays. To read the article in full, click here (subscription required).
