The €400m+ Westermeerwind wind farm in the north east polder of The Netherlands has entered commercial operation. Mott MacDonald is lenders’ technical advisor on the scheme.
The 144MW wind farm is located on a freshwater lake and comprises 48 Siemens SWT-3.0-108 direct drive wind turbines, each with a 3MW capacity. It is capable of producing over 500GWh of renewable electricity a year, providing power for approximately 160,000 households. It forms part of the larger Windpark Noordoostpolder scheme that consists of three separate wind farms – Westermeerwind, NOP Agrowind and Zuiderwester – totalling 86 turbines on water and land. Mott MacDonald has advised on all three of these schemes.
Mott MacDonald has had a long-standing involvement in the Westermeerwind project. After providing early advice to the project management company Ventolines in 2010, the consultancy was appointed lenders’ technical advisor in 2012, offering technical, environmental and commercial due diligence. This led to the scheme successfully achieving financial close in 2014. During construction Mott MacDonald delivered monthly monitoring reports, while it will now provide semi-annual operations monitoring in an ongoing role.
Christos Kolliatsas, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: “Although our involvement with Westermeerwind dates back six years, the project was actually first conceived over 20 years ago. After starting with their own single wind turbines, two local farmers worked together for 21 years with the dream of creating the project on the freshwater Ijsselmeer lake. Their hard work and dedication has paid off with the successful implementation and opening of the wind farm.”
Mott MacDonald is one of the largest power consultancies in the world, with nearly 1200 staff working directly on power-related projects. Committed to sustainable development, its power experts are experienced in all types of thermal, nuclear, hydro and renewable energy generation and power transmission and distribution technologies.