Van Oord's heavy-lift vessel Boreas placed the first wind turbine at Ecowende's Hollandse Kust West VI offshore wind farm on 30 May 2026, kicking off the 760 MW project's installation campaign roughly 53 kilometres off the Dutch coast near IJmuiden.
52 Vestas V236s And Bird-Safe Red Blades
The wind farm will comprise 52 Vestas V236-15.0 MW turbines and is being built by Ecowende, a joint venture between Shell, Eneco and Chubu Electric Power. Seven of those turbines will carry a single, red-painted blade as part of an ecological study testing whether the colour contrast improves rotor visibility for birds and reduces collision risk. The project is positioned as the most ecological offshore wind farm yet, with additional bio-design measures around foundations and inter-array cables.
From Eemshaven To Open Sea
Components have been arriving at the port of Eemshaven over recent months and are staged at Buss Terminal before offshore transport. The first towers were loaded onto Boreas at the end of May. Vestas's V236-15.0 MW is the same offshore platform Vestas is supplying into multiple European projects this year.
On Track For End-Of-2026 Power Production
Van Oord finished installing all monopile foundations earlier this spring after completing what Ecowende calls the industry's first "silent" installation, and Dutch cable manufacturer TKF loaded the final batch of inter-array cables in May. The 760 MW farm is expected to be operational by the end of 2026 and to supply roughly 3 percent of the Netherlands' current electricity demand, joining a wave of European offshore capacity alongside the UK's nuclear push and the EV-driven power demand reshaping electricity markets.
Reporting based on coverage from offshoreWIND.biz, IndexBox, Ocean Energy Resources and Ecowende.