Energy company Vattenfall has started dismantling Wind Farm Eemmeerdijk near Zeewolde in the province of Flevoland. Soon, this last wind farm with NedWind 55 turbines will disappear from the Dutch landscape.
Wind farm Eemmeerdijk dates back to 1998 and at the time consisted of 19 NedWind 55 wind turbines located on the Eemmeerdijk dyke. At the start of the year 17 of the 19 units were still standing.
Not only is this wind farm unique, for being the only wind farm left in the Netherlands with NedWind 55 turbines, it is also unique for its multi-coloured towers. The tower of each of these two-bladed, 1 MW power units by Dutch design was painted in a different colour, representing the colours of the surrounding countryside or, some would say, of the rainbow.
Incident led to earlier decommissioning
However, one of these iconic wind turbines broke down in January this year. Investigation revealed that the wind turbine incident was caused by a loosened pitch cylinder, Vattenfall reported.
The wind farm was already on the list to be decommissioned. After the incident, all wind turbines were stopped and decommissioning was brought forward. Activities started last week and are being carried out by FairWind as the main contractor, with Mammoet for the lifting work, and Danish Kingo for the removal of civil items such as foundation, roads and cables. The work is expected to take 12 weeks. The removed items will be recycled.
