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Artificial ports in the North Sea to facilitate the construction and maintenance of large scale wind farms
Relevant Dutch parties involved in the development of offshore wind energy took the initiative to develop artificial ports in the North Sea to facilitate the construction, exploitation and maintenance of far offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
The association Heden (Haveneiland duurzame energie North Sea; Offshore port sustainable energy North Sea) was established to investigate and develop the prospects for such an island. Heden has also initiated the procedure to obtain building permits from the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (V&W).
Background to the initiative
In 2020 the Netherlands intends to generate 6,000 MW wind energy in the North Sea. This implies that a huge amount of building activity has to take place to realise this ambition between 2015 and 2020. In "the National Water plan" the Dutch Government designates the wind energy areas 'Borssele' and 'IJmuiden'.
Borssele can generate approximately 1,000 MW and IJmuiden 5,000 MW. The IJmuiden area is situated about 80 kilometres west of IJmuiden. This is at a far greater distance than most initiatives of the project planners. Building wind farms in the IJmuiden area involves higher costs: longer shipping time for construction and maintenance and longer cables for the electric connection.
Therefore the idea came up of an offshore port, on an artificial island, for the construction and maintenance of wind turbines on far offshore locations. Using ports on the mainland would lead to longer crossing and waiting times due to workable periods (weather-windows). In this case the available port capacity is limited. In an offshore service harbour parts of the wind turbines can be shipped in, assembled, tested and transported to the foundations. Therefore the construction can take place at a greater pace with fewer crossing hours. Besides, the island may function as a part of the offshore electrical infrastructure collecting the offshore produced electricity in a substation and transported ashore via a transforming station and an HVDC cable. The port may also be important to English projects, with a planning up to 33,000 MW. Lack of good port facilities in the United Kingdom is a great problem in realising the ambitious goals. The port facilities in Vlissingen, for example, are now used for the construction of the wind turbine farm Greater Gabbard near the east coast of England, north of the Thames estuary.
The first port will be built in the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) at approximately 80 kilometres west of IJmuiden within the IJmuiden area, as mentioned in the policy document "Water plan". The island will have a diameter of be about 1,000 metres and consist of landing sites, sites for storage and assembly and commissioning wind turbines, hotel, substation etc. The required investments for the civil infrastructure are estimated at € 1,000 million.
The functions of the offshore island are:
- Service harbour for the construction and transport of wind turbines
- Delivery harbour for (wind turbine) parts
- Assembly wharf for wind turbines
- Commissioning tests of wind turbines
- Service harbour for maintenance of the wind turbine farms
- Service harbour for redevelopment and renewal offshore wind farms
- offshore site of a transformer station to and a electrical hub (connection) to the shore
- Depot for spare parts
- Hotel accommodation for staff
- Test field for prototypes offshore wind turbines
- Control rooms and measuring location
- Derived functions, such as helicopter platform and service harbour
The port function might be extended with other functions, for example:
- Fishing industry: supporting activities, including fish auction and transhipment, cold-storage warehouses, services for nearby fish breeding, etc. (= less shipping time = less use of diesel oil);
- Aqua culture supporting facilities: within the offshore ports aqua culture production units could be set up;
- Services for coast guard, navy and defence;
- Experimental space for marine energy systems including biomass;
- (In case of a location close to an itinerary) bunker facilities, possibly based on both fossil energy and generated biomass fuel;
- Storage CO2 in old gas fields.
The feasibility of the island is not only dependent on an effective and efficient construction of the island itself, but also on alternative solutions to eliminate negative consequences of building far away from an onshore port (different building methods of offshore windmills, logistic methods and the possibility of other offshore 'port-like' constructions).
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Artists impression of the offshore portThree locations
At this moment HEDEN is considering the following three locations on the North Sea for the construction of an offshore port:
1. IJmuiden:
To the west of the wind energy area "IJmuiden ver", indicated in "het Nationaal Waterplan" with number 2.
This island is also vital for the UK wind farms.
2. North East Friesland:
On a location along the border with Germany, north of search area 4 of "het Nationaal Waterplan".
HEDEN intends to develop this island in cooperation with German partners.
3. Northern Clayland:
On a location along the border with the UK and in between the "Natura 2000 gebieden" Klaverbank en Doggersbank.
HEDEN intends to develop this island in cooperation with UK partners; it can also serve as work island for the realisation of the Energy Island of KEMA.
On the Energy Island, when there is a surplus of wind energy, the excess energy is used to pump sea water out of the interior 'subsurface-lake' into the surrounding sea. When there is a shortage of wind power, sea water is allowed to flow back into the interior 'lake' through commercially available generators to produce energy (http://www.kema.com/services/consulting/utility-future/energy-storage/large-scale-storage.aspx)
Environmental Impact Assessment
For each location a First Environmental Impact Assessment document is prepared, as a start of the licensing process:
To find investors for the realization of the island "IJmuiden at Sea", HEDEN is establishing the company "offshore Port Development".
List of participants in HEDEN
ThERRA (Theo Reijs)
ATO den Helder (Hans Bais)
TenneT TSO bv (ir. H.J.M. van Asten)
Van Oord Nederland (Ivar F. R. Daemen)
Lievense B.V. (Arie Mol )
Ballast Nedam (D. Elsevier van Griethuysen)
We@Sea (Chris Westra en Jos Beurskens)
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