Borssele 3 and 4

Borssele III and IV - Blauwwind Offshore Wind Farm Profile

Location and Site Details

• The Borssele III and IV offshore wind farm is located in the Dutch North Sea, approximately 22 kilometers offshore the Zeeland province in the Netherlands. It is situated at the southern border of the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone.
• The project area covers approximately 122 square kilometers, with water depths ranging from 16 to 38 meters.

Ownership and Consortium

• The project is developed and owned by the Blauwwind consortium, which includes:
  • Partners Group (45%)
  • Shell (20%)
  • Diamond Generating Europe (DGE, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation) (15%)
  • Eneco Group (10%)
  • Van Oord (10%).

Capacity and Turbines

• The wind farm has a total installed capacity of 731.5 MW.
• It features 77 MHI Vestas V164 9.5MW wind turbines, each mounted on an 85-meter-long monopile foundation without transition pieces. The turbines have a rotor diameter of 164 meters and a swept area of 21,124 square meters.

Construction and Timeline

• The main construction works began in October 2019 with the installation of the first monopile foundation.
• Van Oord, as the balance-of-plant contractor, was responsible for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the foundations and inter-array cables. The installation of all 77 monopile foundations was completed by the end of April 2020.
• The installation of the wind turbines started in May 2020, and the last turbine was installed by the end of November 2020. The wind farm achieved its first power in August 2020 and became fully operational in February 2021.

Transmission and Grid Connection

• The electricity generated by the turbines is gathered through approximately 175 kilometers of 66kV inter-array cables and transmitted to the Borssele Beta offshore transformer substation, designed and constructed by TenneT.
• At the substation, the power is stepped up to 220kV and then transmitted through 220kV export cables to an onshore substation, where it is further stepped up to 380kV before being fed into the national electricity grid.

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

• Shell and Eneco Group each receive 50% of the electricity produced by the project under a 15-year PPA signed with the Blauwwind consortium in June 2018.
• During the first 15 years of operation, Blauwwind will receive a guaranteed price of €54.49 per MWh under the Dutch SDE+ scheme. After this period, the power will be sold at prevailing market prices.

Contractors and Suppliers

• Van Oord: Responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the foundations and inter-array cables.
• MHI Vestas: Supplied and will maintain the 77 V164 9.5MW wind turbines.
• Sif Holding: Manufactured the 77 monopile foundations for the project.
• Prysmian Group: Subcontracted by Van Oord to supply the 66kV submarine inter-array cables.
• TenneT: Designed and constructed the Borssele Beta offshore transformer substation and handled the grid connection.
• Mott MacDonald: Provided technical advisory and construction and operation monitoring services.
• Green Giraffe: Served as the financial advisor for the project.

Financial Details

• The project required an investment of approximately €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) for construction.
• Financial closure was achieved in June 2018, with €1.034 billion of project finance debt arranged with 12 lenders.

Operational Details

• The wind farm is designed to operate for 25 years under a 30-year lease agreement.
• It is expected to generate 3,000 GWh of green electricity annually, enough to power approximately 825,000 Dutch households and meet about 2.3% of the Netherlands' total electricity demand.

Maintenance

• A service operations vessel (SOV) is used for the maintenance of the wind farm.