(With video) Van Oord has been awarded the Gemini Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, valued at more than € 1.3 billion. The offshore wind project will be one of the largest offshore wind projects in the world.
Van Oord’s activities will encompass the supply and installation of the foundations, the entire electrical infrastructure including the supply and installation of offshore and onshore high-voltage stations, inter-array and export cables and the installation of the Siemens wind turbines. Project preparations for the execution have already commenced.
Construction will start in Q2 2014 and be completed in Q1 2017. Van Oord will deploy several offshore installation vessels including Van Oord’s newly built jack up vessel Aeolus as well as the cable-laying vessel Nexus, which is currently under construction. Nexus will be delivered late 2014.
Gemini Wind Project
The Gemini wind project will be situated 55 km north of the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog and will not be visible from shore. The project consists of 150 4 MW Siemens wind turbines that will supply a total of 600 MW of renewable energy to 785,000 households.
The Gemini shareholders have reached agreement with the banks on the financing. The financial close will contribute € 2.3 billion to the overall construction costs of € 2.8 billion. The shareholders are Northland Power Inc. (60%), Siemens Project Ventures (20%), Van Oord (10%), and HVC (10%) and will contribute equity amounting to a total of more than € 400 million.
Below you find a video of the Gemini wind project.
Sustainable Energy
In the Dutch Energy Transition Agreement, the Dutch Government, several organisations and the private sector have committed themselves to increasing the share of sustainable (renewable) energy from four per cent in 2014 to sixteen per cent in 2023. The Gemini wind project will help reach this goal.
Previously, Van Oord was involved in the Princess Amalia (NL), Belwind (B) and Teesside (UK) projects.
Picture: Van Oord's new jack-up vessel the Aeolus will be deployed for Gemini.
