The Netherlands’ Hollandse Kust Zuid 1.5 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind farm – the first subsidy-free wind farm in Europe – is now inaugurated.

Hollandse Kust Zuid is in the North Sea, 18-36 kilometers (11-22 miles) off the Dutch coast between the towns of Scheveningen and Zandvoort. It’s jointly owned by Vattenfall, BASF, and Allianz.

It’s subsidy-free because Vattenfall was able to complete the project without the Dutch government’s financial help, as the government guaranteed the license and network connections in its tender.

It features 139 Siemens Gamesa 11.0-200 DD wind turbines with a total capacity of 1.5 GW. Each has a rotor diameter of 200 meters (656 feet) and a swept area of 31,400 square meters (337,987 square feet).

Three of the wind turbines are fitted with Siemens Gamesa’s recently developed recyclable blades. The resin used to glue the blades together will be easier to dissolve when their working life is complete, and the components can then be reused.

The total number of turbines was originally supposed to be 140, but last year, one of the foundations was damaged after a bulk carrier became rudderless during a storm and drifted through the wind farm’s site.

The clean electricity that the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm generates is expected to be able to power the equivalent of 1.5 million households in the Netherlands. Nearly half of the clean electricity will be used at BASF sites in Europe. It will become fully operational next year.

Read more: Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm will feature recyclable wind turbine blades

Photo: BASF

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