Marine Information and Data Centre

Egmond aan Zee Wind Farm

The Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Farm (OWEZ (Het Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee)) was the first offshore wind farm to be built off the Dutch North Sea coast. It consists of 36 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 3 MW. The wind farm is located 10 to 18 kilometres off the coast of Egmond aan Zee. It serves as a demonstration project: the knowledge and experience acquired in terms of technology, ecology, and socio-economic feasibility are important for the further development of offshore wind energy.

Wind-op-Zee-Prinses-Amalia-Windpark

NoordzeeWind, a joint venture between utility company Nuon and oil company Shell and the owner of OWEZ (Het Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee), won the tender for OWEZ in combination with the NSW-MEP monitoring and evaluation programme, a research programme launched by the national government in 2006. It sets out learning objectives for the development of offshore wind farms. The NSW-MEP programme has made a significant contribution to the learning objectives for offshore wind energy.

The monitoring and evaluation programme focuses on the following ecological issues:

  • birds: flight patterns, presence, intensity, season, day/night in connection with assessing bird collision risk;
  • birds: disruption of their habitat/foraging habitat;
  • birds: barrier effects;
  • the impact of underwater noise on fish and marine mammals;
  • the variation and densities of underwater life and functioning as a refuge.

The main final reports are available below. The basic data used for these reports can be found under the "open data" tab.