First Offshore Solar Farm in High Wave Conditions Planned for Hollandse Kust Noord

Offshore solar developer Oceans of Energy has won a contract to install and operate offshore solar inside the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park.

 

The contract was awarded by CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, and is touted as the first offshore solar farm in the world to be operated within a wind farm in high wave conditions.

 

The planned installation will be situated between the wind turbines of the Hollandse Kust Noord wind park. It will produce energy on sunny but less windy days thereby maximising the offshore power grid infrastructure.

 

Oceans for Energy has developed a unique technology that enables solar panels to exist offshore for a period of 30 years with minimal maintenance. The modular system is capable of withstanding waves of up to 13 metres.

 

The mooring system, developed in-house, keeps the offshore floating solar farm in place. There is no limitation for the water depth, although the current system is 22 metres.

 

Maria Kalogera, innovations manager of CrossWind, said in a statement: “Offshore floating solar is an exciting area of renewable energy development that is poised to play an important role in the energy transition. This project marks a significant milestone for our CrossWind Innovations Team as we continue to push on our commitment to create better energy solutions for the future.”

 

The offshore wind park will be operational by the end of 2023 with the solar farm operational in 2025.

 

The Hollandse Kust Noord wind park will have an installed capacity of 759MW, generating at least 3.3TWh per year. The park will be a test bed for several project demonstrations including; short-term battery storage, MW-scale green hydrogen produced by electrolysis and used as storage, and turbines that are optimised for wake control.