Cable milestone reached for world-first offshore solar-wind integration at HKN1

The dynamic subsea power export cable for the HKN1 offshore solar project at the Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) offshore wind farm, the first of its kind connected to an offshore wind grid, has been tested and delivered.

Oceans of Energy and CrossWindHKN confirmed the completion of the factory acceptance test (FAT) at NKT’s production facility in Sweden. 

Following the test, the cable was transported to the project site in the Dutch North Sea, where it will be installed at the HKN offshore wind farm, Oceans of Energy noted.

“Initially, sourcing a dynamic subsea power export cable was challenging due to the rough wave conditions of the North Sea,” said Tijmen Smit, Project Manager HKN1 at Oceans of Energy. 

“However, with the advanced properties of the NKT cable, our team executed complex engineering to achieve an optimal design configuration. The next step is installation, after which this cable will be the first cable in the North Sea that supplies offshore solar energy to an offshore wind turbine grid.”

Jeroen van Loon from CrossWindHKN said the milestone was achieved thanks to the joint efforts of NKT and Oceans of Energy.

“With the delivery of the dynamic subsea power export cable, we’re ready to connect for the first time in the world an offshore solar farm into the infrastructure of an offshore wind farm,” van Loon added.

The project marks a technical step in the integration of offshore solar with existing wind infrastructure.

CrossWind’s Hollandse Kust Noord project is a 759 MW offshore wind project that will use technologies and engineering solutions to improve the flexibility of offshore wind farms.

The project has many first-offs, including being the first wind farm in the world with an offshore combination of battery storage and round-trip green hydrogen produced from offshore wind power on a megawatt scale. Once constructed, the offshore wind farm will generate at least 3.3 TWh of clean energy per year.

Oceans of Energy was awarded the contract for installing and operating an offshore solar farm inside the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park in April 2023.

In October 2024, the first floating solars for the Hollandse Kust Noord (HKN) offshore solar farm arrived at the Port of Amsterdam, set for installation at the Dutch CrossWind HKN offshore wind farm.