Harlingen-based Kraanverhuur Transport Friesland (KTF) has been awarded a contract for the storage and transshipment of 89 concrete platforms for the Windpark Fryslân wind turbines.
The platforms, manufactured by Per Aarsleff in Poland, will be delivered to and stored in Harlingen, from where they will then be loaded onto inland pontoons and transported to IJsselmeer.
The first 24 platforms will arrive in Harlingen in September, with the offshore installation scheduled to start in October.
The contract with the Zuiderzeewind consortium, consisting of Siemens Gamesa and Van Oord, is the first one in the offshore wind sector for KTF.
KTF has made available an area of approximately 10,000 square metres on the Nesta site for the project.
The platforms will be unloaded onto the quay from the transport vessel and then KTF will transport them to the storage area. After being stored shortly in Harlingen, the concrete platforms will be loaded onto a pontoon and shipped to the project site at Breezanddijk in the IJsselmeer.
The artificial island near Kornwerderzand, which will first serve as the construction stage for the Windpark Fryslân nearshore project and after that as a nature reserve and a bird sanctuary, is expected to be built by September .
The same month, the monopile foundation installation will start. First inter-array cables are set to be installed in December, and wind turbine installation is scheduled for March 2021.
The wind turbines are scheduled to be up and running in the summer of 2021. Once operational, the Dutch 382.7 MW Windpark Fryslân will become the largest wind farm in the world installed in inland water.