The site
At the time of construction, Prinses Amaliawindpark was the first wind farm to be located this far offshore and in such deep waters. The wind farm is located 23 kilometres from the coast, in block Q7 of the Dutch Continental Shelf. Sea depth in this area is 19 to 24 metres. There are 60 turbines with a capacity of 2 MW each. With a 550-metre distance between the individual turbines in order to minimise the influence they have on each other, the wind farm covers an area of 14 square kilometres.
The Vestas V80 turbines are positioned on ‘mono-piles': steel tubes with a diameter of 4 metres and a length of 50 metres. The shaft centre height is 59 metres and the rotor diameter is 80 metres. Each turbine is connected to a high-voltage offshore substation through 22 kV cables. A 150 kV cable with a length of 28 kilometres runs along the seabed and connects to a land cable measuring 7 kilometres in length, which connects to the Velsen-Noord substation, where it is transferred into the electricity network.

Contribution Evelop
With this project, Evelop introduced a new structured finance template for offshore wind. Prinses Amaliawindpark was the first offshore wind farm funded on the basis of a non-recourse project financing structure. This means that the banks involved - Dexia, Rabobank and BNP Paribas - secure loans and interest payments only from the revenues generated by the wind farm. This financing structure includes a number of features that manage the risks associated with the construction and long-term operation of wind turbines in the North Sea. It also serves as a model for other offshore wind farms.
After the permit was issued, Evelop was responsible for the development and for the construction of the project. Mid 2009 Eneco became 50% owner of the wind park. Evelop is partly responsible for management and maintenance of the wind park.

Status
The permit was issued on February 18, 2002. In October 2006, financial close of the project was reached and the first foundations were hammered into the seabed. Prinses Amaliawindpark was opened and became operational on Wednesday 4 June 2008.

Partnerships
For the development and operation of Prinses Amaliawindpark, we worked together with utility company Eneco. Van Oord, leading international dredging and marine contractor, built the foundations of the offshore wind farm and laid on the electric infrastructure. Vestas supplied and installed the towers and wind turbines. ING Bank is for 50% co-shareholder of the wind farm.

More information? Visit www.prinsesamaliawindpark.eu