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When the Swedish company Vattenfall set out in 2018 to combine wind, solar and battery garage resources in this pioneering energy park in the Netherlands, its main objective was to demonstrate a synergy of clean, economical and reliable energy resources. The completed allocation of 72 MW has since the company’s blueprint for the future.
Goeree-Overflakkee, an island located in the Dutch River Delta in the southern component of the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, has a history of fighting climate stress. Surrounded by various bodies of water: Haringvliet to the north, Volkerak-Randmeer to the east, Grevelingenmeer and Krammer to the south, and the North Sea to the west: over the centuries, the island has increased its land mass through recovery, but has fought to protect it. Flooded with dams, dikes and esclusas. de the threats posed by emerging seas, Goeree-Overflakkee has been a strong advocate for climate adaptation in the Netherlands, but has also led very significant mitigation efforts in the country that has long relied on fossil fuels for electric power and heating. More than a decade ago, the region, famous in the Netherlands for its landscapes of virgin herbs, committed itself to becoming a style of sustainability, setting itself the ambitious purpose of achieving power neutrality. and self-sufficiency until 2020.
To help the region achieve its sustainability goals, Vattenfall announced in November 2018 a €26 million investment resolution for a wind farm north of the island of Goeree-Overflakkee between Middelharnis and Stad aan ‘t Haringvliet, near Rotterdam. Vattenfall recently launched its own sustainability efforts. The company, one hundred percent owned by the Swedish government, emerged from years of losses related to immediate adjustments in European electricity markets, and recently revised its investment strategy to reflect “a 1. 5 degree target” and a “goal of living fossil-free in a generation. “
Vattenfall presented the allocation by signing contracts with Nordex Group for the source of six N117 wind turbines with a combined nominal capacity of 22 MW. It also contracted BAM Infra for the civil engineering paints of the assignment, adding cables and pipes for the wind farm. But in August 2019, it announced another €35 million investment for an adjacent 38 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar park and a 12 MW giant battery installation that would have the same grid connection as wind turbines.
The big effort to expand Haringvliet Zuid Energy Park as a hybrid allocation, one of the largest in Europe at the time, is new to Vattenfall, but strategic, said Margit Deimel, Vattenfall director for Sun and Batteries. “The generation, the garage and the grid connection use the same infrastructure and we can operate more economically because of the synergy effects,” he said.
First of all, the structure of the task progressed smoothly, starting first with the installation of the six Nordex wind turbines, which were transported by road at dusk from Germany. In February 2020, while the blades of the first wind turbine were being assembled, the company began to prepare the installation of the solar panels. While the wind turbines were finally assembled in two months, the installation of the 115,000 solar panels of the order on 40 hectares of surface (Figure 1) took six months.
German solar energy specialist BELECTRIC, which built and commissioned the solar power system, stated that the solar park was completed in April 2021. The company, which will now operate and maintain the solar allocation for two years, noted that the allocation requires more vigilance in coordination. planning and construction, as well as for the specific allocation capability of your knowledge acquisition and tracking system (SCADA). The team “has evolved and effectively implemented optimized responses for tracking and solar park, which take into account market price evolution, weather forecasts and power grid requirements,” he said.
Joint preparations also began to install the 12 MW power garage formula in 12 shipping boxes: six boxes filled with 288 BMW batteries and six with auxiliary appliances, such as inverters and transformers. In addition, the allocation includes a battery substation. Dutch network appliance manufacturer Alfen was the prime contractor for the battery formula, which was prefabricated and packaged in boxes in a factory.
However, in March 2020, the speed of work stopped when the Dutch government instituted stricter regulations to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Vattenfall, concerned about maintaining protection on site, cautiously continued the structure of the work with fewer people for longer. Shifts
The task also suffered another major setback in December 2020, when a chimney exploded in the wind turbine closest to the village of Middelharnis. Further investigation showed that the chimney was due to condensation in the terminals, which caused a flashover. the medium voltage divider also prevented the error from correcting the error quickly. The significant damage required the reconstruction of the turbine with a new medium voltage distributor, transformer, converter, nacelle and mast. However, the blades were reused, he said Vattenfall. la turbine was reinstalled in August 2021.
After rigorous controls, the Haringvliet energy park was declared commercially open in March 2022. While the facility is designed to produce 140 GWh of electric power per year, its constant capacity depends on seasonal needs. Solar panels produce energy during the day, while wind turbines in our country produce more at night. The two are complemented by the stations: wind turbines supply maximum electrical power in winter, while solar panels do so in summer,” Vattenfall said.
“As a result, they can seamlessly use the same grid connection, which means you want to reserve less power on the grids and the connection is used much more year-round,” he added. The battery ensures that net sun and wind generation remain in balance, the company said. “Depending on the case, they contribute a little more electricity to the grid or, on the contrary, they buy electricity. An in-house developed software formula ensures that the other elements paint in combination optimally.
For Vattenfall, the structure of the hybrid power plant basically illustrated the main power gains similar to the progression of the project. “The benefits are innumerable,” he said. For example, building a wind farm can take 10 years to prepare. Significant time savings are achieved by adding the sun and batteries into plans from the start. In addition, structuring a power park with the 3 technologies is less expensive than using 3 separate projects. After all, they share the same substation, cables, maintenance routes and network connection, and the floor only wants to open once. »
But the advantages of getting from the allocation have also extended to consumers. “Because the network connection is used more efficiently, less capacity needs to be reserved on the network and network reinforcement is limited to a single place. An advantage of getting extra is that rare technical issues are implemented only once for a grid connection, which means the power transition can be accelerated,” the company said.
Another merit of hybrid allocation is that it makes effective use of the area. Such a compact design leaves more area for other purposes in the region, such as agriculture and recreation. In addition, the effect on the landscape is minor, Vattenfall said.
In particular, Vattenfall solicited contributions for the final design of the park through workshops in the region with local residents, stakeholders, the municipality, the province and the network operator. The design of the Haringvliet Zuid energy park, despite everything, has evolved into a “nature-inclusive” facility. The company said, for example, that it had responded to network requests to allow the structure of a motorcycle trail and an “observation hill,” and that it had kept the height of symptoms within 1. 5 meters “so passers-by can see overhead. “
Meanwhile, in line with Goeree-Overflakkee’s picturesque and environmentally friendly heritage, the energy park is also designed to adapt to biodiversity and scenic beauty. The edges of the park are planted with reeds and flowering grasses to allow aquatic animals, cane birds and insects to thrive. Open strips in the park are also planted with local grass mixtures, and Vattenfall has explored the option for local beekeepers to place bee colonies in the energy park. “He said.
In some other notable facet similar to the progression of allocation, Vattenfall partnered with other regional wind allocation developers to create a “wind fund. “Funded through annual contributions from wind farm owners built after 2016, the initiative will allow organizations to use the proceeds for local allocations. Vattenfall also showed that it will pay annual fees to families in the vicinity of the wind farm.
The result was enthusiastic, says Vattenfall. The local government is very happy with the compact design that produces maximum sustainable energy. The Network Operator will accept this task through the effective use of the non-unusual electric power grid and harmonious integration. Local stakeholders are concerned and happy with the integration into the landscape,” he said. “In short, the benefits of an energy park like this are so wonderful that in the future, Vattenfall will investigate from the beginning whether there are opportunities to use multiple technologies aspect by aspect. It would be very useful for local governments to integrate this further into their regional power strategies. »
2021 has been a year of sunshine with a record number of new projects registered in ANEEL,. . .
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