The London Array is the largest offshore wind farm in Europe with a capacity of 630 MW. The second largest in Europe, the Gemini wind farm has just opened up in the North Sea, just off the coast of Netherlands, prepared to produce about 2.6 TWh of electricity annually.
The Gemini wind farm is situated 85 km (53) miles north of the Groningen coast, not visible from the mainland, and even the neighboring islands. It is made up of 150 turbines, spread out over 68 square kilometers ( 26 square miles). The spot was chosen to build the farm due to the high wind speeds in the area, averaging at 36 kilometers an hour (22 mph). With a capacity of 600 MW, the Gemini trails closely behind the London Array (630 MW) as the second largest offshore wind farm in the world.
Two nearby substations will collect the electricity generated by the Gemini turbines and then send it off to the Eemshaven seaport 110 km (68 miles) away. A land station here is responsible for maintenance and management of the entire facility, feeding the power to the country’s grid. In the next few decades, the Gemini wind farm will be supplying power to 1.5 million residents, reducing the carbon dioxide emissions by 1.25 million tonnes (1.38 millions tons) a year.
Van Oord and Siemens contracted to do the construction for the project that began in 2015. It took over two years, and the farm began operation now in May 2017. The CEO of Gemini Mathias Haag said, “We have built the wind farm within the scheduled time, within budget and in a safe manner. Gemini thus makes an important contribution to the sustainability of the Netherlands.”
The 360-degree video below shows the Gemini wind farm in all its glory: