Innovations
The wind does not always blow consistently. So how can a wind park provide electricity when there is little wind? CrossWind and its partners are exploring five different innovations designed to address these challenges. Through these innovations an offshore wind park could be capable of providing more constant electricity regardless of the wind conditions.
Innovation journey
August, 2021
Intelligent wind turbines
One of CrossWind’s five innovations is Intelligent Wind Turbines. Using integrated technologies, converters can act as programmable filters to reduce harmonics flowing into the grid through software. When required, the turbines can also briefly deliver additional power to support grid demand.
April, 2022
Wind farm flow control
In collaboration with TU Delft, CrossWind is developing innovative wind farm flow control technologies. These aim to shorten turbine wakes or redirect them, enabling downstream turbines to capture more wind. As a result, overall energy production from the wind farm can be increased.
September, 2023
The Next Airbender
Dynamic wind farm flow control reduces wake effects between turbines, increasing offshore wind energy production. By actively controlling wind flow, the total energy yield of the entire wind farm can be significantly improved. Jan-Willem van Wingerden discussed this concept on the Grow podcast.
November, 2023
On national television
On NPO, Menno Bentveld explored the construction of CrossWind’s Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park and offshore wind’s role in the energy transition. Engineering Manager Ronald van Dijk joined offshore, explaining how the project will supply around 16% of the Netherlands’ energy demand.
April, 2024
Knowledge sharing
The Wind Farm Flow Control project, developed together with TU Delft, was featured during the Q-meeting. This provided an opportunity to share insights, progress, and lessons learned with peers, supporting broader knowledge exchange on advanced wind farm control technologies.
April, 2022
Floating solar
Together with TNO, CrossWind is demonstrating the world’s first floating solar plant integrated into an offshore wind farm. The concept was successfully tested in 2022 at Fieldlab Green Economy in Westvoorne, where innovative floating PV designs were validated under real environmental conditions.
June, 2022
Integrating floating solar
What does it take to integrate floating solar into offshore wind farms? Innovations Manager Maria Kalogera spoke with Solar Magazine about the project and its current phase, explaining how CrossWind is pushing technological boundaries to unlock the potential of combined offshore energy systems.
April, 2025
Oceans of Energy
CrossWind awarded Oceans of Energy the contract to install and operate offshore solar within the Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm. This marks the world’s first offshore solar farm operating inside a wind park in high wave conditions, improving energy yield and grid infrastructure use.
December, 2023
Start construction of the Base Load Power Hub
Together with Rosetti Marino, CrossWind started building offshore hydrogen production and battery storage to store excess wind and solar energy. The first steel cut recently took place in Italy. This pioneering Base Load Power Hub will convert renewable energy into hydrogen and back to electricity.
April, 2025
Construction BLPH platform completed
Construction of the BLPH is complete. Designed offshore, it enables hydrogen production, storage, and conversion back to electricity, helping balance wind power fluctuations. After final commissioning tests in Italy, the BLPH will be installed in Eemshaven and transferred to Delft Offshore Turbine.
May, 2025
Successful installation of the anchors
A key milestone has been reached with the successful installation of the anchors for the floating solar park. The anchors are located near the wind turbines of Hollandse Kust Noord and form an essential foundation for safely operating floating solar within the offshore wind farm.
July, 2025
Onshore Integrated Testing of the BLPH is complete
Onshore integrated testing of the Base Load Power Hub has been successfully completed at Rosetti Marino’s yard in Ravenna. The tests validated the core principles of this first-of-its-kind system. The milestone reflects strong teamwork and resilience, with load-out and transport to the Netherlands as next steps.
September, 2025
The Base Load Power Hub has arrived in the Netherlands
After a careful five-week journey from Italy, navigating around storm Amy, the Base Load Power Hub safely arrived at the port of Eemshaven. In early October, its arrival will be celebrated and ownership transferred to Delft Offshore Turbine, Groningen Seaports, and TNO.
October, 2025
Handing over the BLPH
The BLPH has arrived in Eemshaven, marking a milestone for the Dutch energy transition and Groningen Hydrogen Valley. The 23×46-meter, 1,800-tonne platform includes a 2.5 MW electrolyser, 1,200 kg hydrogen storage, and a 1 MW battery. On October 3, CrossWind handed it to Delft Offshore Turbine, with Shell Technology remaining involved.
May, 2025
WindEurope 2025 and Crosswind System Integration
At WindEurope 2025, Jenna Iori from TU Delft presented research on delivering reliable baseload power from wind and storage using an optimization-based dispatch strategy. Tested across multiple offshore sites, the approach met reliability targets, demonstrating wind power can be both clean and dependable.
June, 2024
Celebration PhD System Integration research publications
Jenna Iori’s PhD thesis has been published, covering wind turbine design optimization, control co-design approaches, and documented negative results. Read here: System Integration research
Intelligent wind turbines
CrossWind’s Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) supplier Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) will play a leading part in adding flexibility on a scale of seconds. Using real-time data, intelligent wind turbines can respond to changing conditions within seconds and help to keep stability across the electricity grid.
Addressing the wake effect
When a wind turbine extracts energy from the wind, it leaves behind a wake of lower wind speeds that decreases the power output of any downwind turbines. This is also called the ‘wake effect’. To some extent, we already minimize wake losses by smart layout design. Another solution is to control the wind turbines in a smart way by giving them a yaw offset for certain wind directions. This slightly reduces the power output of single turbine, but a yawed rotor will also push the wake away from any downwind turbines, leading to a higher total power output. Together with TU Delft and its partners, CrossWind is looking at ways of using real-time data to reduce the wake effect across the entire wind park.
Offshore solar
What about times when there is simply not enough wind to turn a turbine? CrossWind, Oceans of Energy and TNO will design, install and operate the world's first offshore floating solar plant at 0.5MW that will be placed alongside the wind turbines. It will help generate additional power when the sun shines, alongside the power production from the wind turbines. Besides increasing the power output per km2, the combination with floating solar panels also increases the utilization of the grid connection
Storing energy
How can you store excess energy in times of low demand to supply it in times when demand is high? CrossWind and its partners will design and develop facilities within the wind park that involves battery storage and hydrogen production at MW scale that will produce hydrogen in periods of high power production and converts the hydrogen to electricity when needed. This will provide flexibility on the hours-to-days scale with batteries providing storage for up to several hours and longer-term energy storage using hydrogen for up to around 36 hours.
Research & integration
CrossWind is looking at opportunities to efficiently integrate these innovations within the wind park. We have commissioned further research to explore opportunities for a more optimized, balanced, stable and efficient grid use.
Our aim is to help the world build intelligent wind parks that can match supply with demand of renewable electricity and to further power the transition into a lower-carbon future.
Frequently Asked Questions
CrossWind and TNO will experiment with offshore solar panels (0.5 MW) next to the wind turbines as part of the innovation projects in the wind farm agreed with the government. The solar panels will help to generate extra green power when the sun is shining, on top of the power production of the wind turbines. The solar panels will also provide electricity if there is not enough wind. This will result in a more constant energy production. In addition to increasing the capacity per square kilometre of wind farm, we will also increase the utilisation of the grid connection with a combination of these technologies.
