PVTIME – Marine contractor Boskalis has secured a key subsea contract for the first phase of the large-scale Zeewind offshore wind farm, which is located in the Dutch North Sea. This project is being delivered through a joint venture set up by the European energy company Vattenfall and the investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
Under the scope of the contract, Boskalis will oversee the transportation and full offshore deployment of approximately 149 kilometres of 66kV inter-array cabling for phase one. In addition to laying the cables, Boskalis will also be responsible for subsea survey operations, cable termination work, system testing, and fitting cable-protection hardware on the seabed. Actual offshore construction activity is due to begin in 2029, while front-end engineering will start before that date.
Zeevonk is structured as a two-phase build-out, with each phase delivering 1GW of wind-power generating capacity. Phase 1 is scheduled for completion before 2029, while Phase 2 is planned for 2032. The latter stage will also bring an additional 500MW of system integration capacity, including a green hydrogen electrolyser facility planned within the Port of Rotterdam.
Spanning a marine area of 650 square kilometres between 63 and 84 kilometres offshore from the Dutch coastline, Zeevonk has already secured several major supply partners. TKF will manufacture the inter-array cables and the DEME Group will transport and install the monopile foundations, which are being fabricated by EEW SPC.
Boskalis has chosen not to publish the exact monetary value of this latest contract. The company categorises it as a ‘sizeable’ deal, falling within the €50 million to €150 million range.
