On my way to Vlissingen, to see @Orsted's brand new 752 MW offshore wind farm! First such encounter since a visit to the Princess Amalia wind farm, that we helped develop, in 2008.

For comparison:

Princess Amalia: 120 MW
60 wind turbines, 2 MW each

Borssele I-II: 752 MW
94 wind turbines, 8 MW each

We've come a long way!

This is where we'll be heading for: 23 km (15 miles) off the coast of Zeeland, in the southwest of the Netherlands.
Borssele III-IV is the adjacent 732 MW wind farm, being built by the Blauwwind consortium.
Altogether a 1.5 GW power plant, connected to the grid by @TenneTTSO

Borssele's two wind farms are the start of a series of 5 (700-750 MW each), being built in rapid succession: by 2023, it will have grown our Dutch offshore wind capacity by 350%, from 1 to 4.5 GW. On our way to 11 GW by 2030!

In an early stage of this 3.5 GW offshore wind program, we (then still Ecofys) supported @TennetTSO in its engagement with the wind developers, to help standardize the 700 MW offshore high-voltage stations in a mutually beneficial way. Saves a lot of cost.

Starting point: @Orsted's office in the Port of Vlissingen, next to the Westerschelde.

And its Operation & Maintenance base, of course. Will be around for at least 20 years, I guess.

On our way to Borssele I-II !

Bit of a bumpy ride, despite the good weather ;)

But there they are!
The tip reaches 200 meters high; you wouldn't say so...

.. until you get close. That first platform is at 20 meters (7 storeys)!

Action!
Around 2/3 of the 752 MW is already in operation, while the last wind turbines are being completed (this week!).

All 94 turbines, in strings of 8 each, deliver their power (at 66 kV) to @TenneTTSO's Borssele Alpha platform, which converts it to 220 kV (AC) to bring it onshore at Borssele.

And here's Jasper @Vision23, the Godfather of Borssele I-II, finally getting to see the result of his pioneering work in real life!

At the construction site now; second blade to be attached here.

The Sea Challenger can take 4 towers, 4 nacelles, and 12 blades at a time.

Five blades to go!

Pretty good progress at the neighbors (Blauwwind) too!

Back near the Zeeland coast (at Westkapelle), this what you see. You might need to zoom in a bit ;)
Thanks, @OrstedNL, great to see it happen for real!

. @Vision23 (see thread) adds: What we saw being installed was #93 out of 94 turbines. It takes roughly 24 hours to fully install a turbine on its foundation. https://twitter.com/Vision23/status/1300500281998929921?s=20

And this: Once completed, later this year, this one wind farm will produce around 3 billion kWh per year, for 25 years or more. That's 2.5% of the (current) national electricity demand in the Netherlands. https://twitter.com/Vision23/status/1300507474550808580?s=20

. @Hans_Gruenfeld (on board as well) notes that the project is being completed on schedule despite Covid-19. Quite an amazing feat indeed, requiring massive efforts to keep the crews safe. https://twitter.com/Hans_Gruenfeld/status/1300518929740238854?s=19

Thanks, RWWF ;!