Zeewolde Wind farm will become the largest onshore wind farmin the Netherlands. ABB Power Grids will supply the substation for the 91 wind turbines to feed electrical energy into the TenneT national high-voltage grid. The 6.5-kilometer long cable connection between the substation and the high-voltage grid is also included in ABB’s scope of supply.
Construction work will start in the course of 2019. In the fall of 2020, the park will deliver the first sustainably generated energy. The substation is also being prepared to distribute energy from other wind and solar farms.
The wind farm consists of 91 large, modern wind turbines. The new wind turbines will replace 220 smaller turbines of which the oldest ones have generated energy for twenty years. Over the years the efficiency of wind turbines has increased significantly, therefore much larger amounts of electrical energy can be generated with a smaller number of modern wind turbines. The new turbines will each have a capacity of up to 3.5 MW.
ABB Power Grids will also supply the two 240 MVA transformers. They will be placed near the substation. The electricity supplied by the wind turbines at 33 kV level is thus transformed up to 150 kV in order to feed in to the national high-voltage network with the least possible energy losses. In addition to the 33 kV and 150 kV switching equipment, ABB supplies the protection equipment, the Scada system and all the structural facilities for the substation. The 6.5-kilometer cable connection from the wind farm to the 150 kV station of TenneT is also part of the scope of supply.
Once completed, the Zeewolde wind farm will be the largest onshore wind project in the Netherlands with 357 MW installed power. The wind turbines at Wind farm Zeewolde will soon provide enough energy to supply 280,000 households with electricity. That is 2.5 times more than what is generated with the current mills.
The ownership of the wind farm is extraordinary; Windpark Zeewolde B.V. is a private partnership with shareholders. More than 200 farmers, residents, land and wind turbine owners from the Zeewolde area are the shareholders. It is a partnership outside the major energy companies whicht is unique for a sustainable energy project of this size.
Through the construction of this substation and the cable connection ABB contributes in an important way to making the Dutch energy supply more sustainable. Compared to traditional electricity generation, the emission of around 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year is prevented.
