Vattenfall to repower one of world’s first offshore wind farms

Vattenfall plans to replace a 28-turbine, 16.8MW nearshore wind farm with 24 turbines totalling 132MW.

The Swedish developer has begun dismantling the Nordtank NTK600/43 turbines at the 16.8MW Irene Vorrink Irene Vorrink (16.8MW) Offshoreoff Lelystad, Flevoland, Netherlands, Europe Click to see full details wind farm in the IJsselmeerdijk in the north of the Netherlands. It aims to have taken them all down by April.

It will replace them with 24 of GE’s 5.5-158 turbines, located between 500 and 1,500 metres from the shore. It does not need further permitting approvals to do this, and aims to begin installation in spring 2023, ahead of commissioning in the first quarter of 2024.

Vattenfall will own 14 of the new turbines, while Swifterwint – a group of more than 170 local farmers and residents – will own the other ten.

The project’s initial 28 turbines were connected to the dyke north of Lelystad by drawbridges. During the wind farm’s 25-year operational lifetime, ice build-up twice lifted some of the drawbridges – but because the bridges were only hinged on one end, there was no damage to the bridges, the dyke or the turbines.

Although the old turbines will be removed, part of their monopiles and cables will be left behind. Vattenfall wanted to remove these components, but central government agency Rijkswaterstaat and regional water authority the Zuiderzeeland Water Board were concerned that the vibration equipment needed to remove the foundations could have damaged the dyke.

Vattenfall aims to recycle as much of the turbines as possible, it stated. This will be easy for components such as the tower and nacelle, according to Matthew May, who is supervising the repowering project as part of Vattenfall’s construction management team. 

However, recycling the blades will be more difficult. May added: “We are in discussion with a few parties to have all the blades recycled into high-quality raw materials for completely new products.”

Irene Vorrink was first commissioned in 1997, making it one of the world’s earliest offshore wind farms. The world’s first offshore wind farm, Vindeby, was commissioned in 1991 and decommissioned in 2017, while another early project, Bockstigen, was commissioned in 1998 and repowered the following in 2018.