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Van Oord to build largest Dutch offshore wind project
Van Oord has been awarded the Project Gemini EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract, valued at more than EUR 1.3 billion.
The Gemini offshore wind project shareholders, headed by Canada's Northland Power Inc., announced today that they have reached agreement with the banks on the project's financing.
Project Gemini will be one of the largest offshore wind projects in the world and the largest wind project in the Netherlands. It will supply renewable energy to 785,000 households as from 2017. Van Oord's construction activities will include the supply and installation of the foundations, the entire electrical infrastructure and the installation of the Siemens wind turbines. Project preparations for the execution have already commenced. Construction will start in Q2 2014 and be completed in Q1 2017.
Banks are contributing EUR 2.3 billion to the EUR 2.8 billion construction costs for Project Gemini, in which Van Oord has a 10% equity stake alongside Northland Power Inc. (60%), Siemens Project Ventures (20%) and HVC (10%). The shareholders will contribute total equity of EUR 400 million.
Van Oord will deploy several offshore installation vessels including Van Oord's newly built jack-up vessel Aeolus as well as the cable-laying vessel Nexus, which is currently under construction.