Today, the offshore demonstration wind farm in the Dutch Borssele offshore wind zone was launched.
The objective is to accelerate cost reduction of offshore wind energy in the long term and to stimulate innovation in the Dutch offshore wind sector.
Peter Terium, Chair of the Executive Board of the TKI Wind op Zee and CEO of RWE, offered Maarten Camps, Secretary General for Economic Affairs, an illustration of possible innovations as a symbol of the chosen approach.
Peter Terium said: “In short: a site to test and demonstrate innovations for two wind turbines is now made available in the Borssele offshore wind zone. This site is a separate wind farm neighbouring a larger regular wind farm. This is called the “co-location” model. The advantage of this model is that the demonstration project is contractually and in terms of risk independent but it can benefit from various facilities of the nearby wind farm.”
This could include soil and wind and wave data, Environmental Impact Assessment, permits, grid connection and possible cooperation concerning for example installation, management and maintenance. However, the demonstration wind farm is physically and contractually separated from the regular wind farm.
During the launch, Maarten Camps stressed the importance of the demonstration site: “At the request of the Ministry of Economic Affairs the TKI Wind op Zee has developed a quality proposal that gives new technological breakthroughs the possibility to be demonstrated, in addition to the innovations that are already made possible with the new offshore wind tender system.”
In particular larger, breakthrough innovations can be demonstrated in the demonstration wind farm; innovations that would normally not be deployed in a regular wind farm.
It is expected that the two positions will be awarded by the TKI Offshore Wind in a tender organised in 2016/2017. The selection in this tender will focus in particular on the innovative content of the proposals.
The demonstration wind farm is planned to be operational by 2020.
Image: TKI Offshore Wind