World’s second largest offshore wind facility now opened in Dutch North sea

After two-year construction work, the Gemini Windpark project developed by Northland Power-led consortium has been inaugurated on May 8.

Located in the North Sea, at 85km off the Groningen’s coast, the 600MW Gemini Offshore Wind Park covers a 68 square-feet kilometers area. It is a strategical position as it has some of the highest and most constant wind speeds with an average of 36km/h.

The Managing Director of Gemini, Matthias Haag commented on the opening: “We successfully completed Gemini ahead of schedule, under budget and with an excellent safety record. Now fully operational, Gemini will produce 2.6 TWh of sustainable energy every year, reducing the Netherlands’ CO₂ emissions by 1.25 million tons. We are proud to make this contribution to the realization of the Netherlands’ sustainability targets.”

The Gemini Wind Park comprises 150 Siemens wind turbines with a capacity of 4MW each and two offshore high-voltage substations that are connected by to the land station in Eemshaven with a 110km export cable. Management and maintenance headquarters are to be located in Eemshaven and will create up to 75 jobs.

The project has been carried out by a consortium composed of the Canadian Northland Power that owns a 60% share; Siemens wind Power with 20% and the two Dutch companies Van Oord and HVC that have each a 10% share.

€2.8bn was invested in the construction project that was financed by twenty-five banks from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.