Scour Protection
Van Oord has completed the installation of scour protection and rock berms for Ecowende’s Hollandse Kust West offshore wind farm.
The company deployed its Bravenes and Nordnes vessels to install around 300,000 tonnes of rock to protect turbine foundations and critical cable infrastructure.
A key milestone in the campaign was the installation of nature-inclusive eco-rock berms and the stabilisation of all cable protection systems. According to Van Oord, this involved installing rocks weighing up to 450kg, the largest individual rock units ever installed by a vessel using an SRI system.
The scour protection concept was jointly developed by Van Oord and Ecowende to combine infrastructure protection with habitat creation.
The design incorporates ecological bays, habitat-forming crevices and a range of rock sizes intended to create shelter and support marine life around the wind turbine foundations, while maintaining the long-term stability of the offshore infrastructure.
In the meantime, turbine installation work is progressing, with Hollandse Kust West starting to produce its first electricity to the grid recently.
