Opening nieuw windpark ‘Hollandse Kust Zuid’
Main category
B2B
Sub-category
4. Ceremony
Watch the event video
Event Description and Key Objectives
On 29 September 2023, Vattenfall and partners BASF & Allianz opened ‘Hollandse Kust Zuid’, the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm! This unique achievement deserves to be celebrated in a big way, together with all those involved, but also with a powerful image that is sure to resonate beyond the moment itself. We came up with the idea of a ‘Human Turbine’ in which the king would play an important role.
Objectives: Acknowledge the achievement, our enthusiasm and pride. Mark the occasion. Create a unique official opening Involve stakeholders: local and regional politicians and the next generation. Generate media attention for the major steps being taken by Vattenfall to achieve its sustainability ambitions.
Key challenges
Key challenges of the event
- We were faced with the challenge of organising the opening of a project that was 18 km off the coast, a place where we could not be physically present. So, we wanted to make the size of a wind turbine tangible.
- It was important to ensure the success of the special opening of the wind park and consequently, the unveiling of the symbolic Human Turbine at the right moment in spite of weather conditions (Netherlands, changeable weather, at the beach, exposed to the elements).
- Another challenge was to gather enough people to form the Human Turbine – and preferably people with a connection to this unique event and the Vattenfall organisation.
To overcome these challenges, XSAGA came up with the idea to incorporate the involvement of the Vattenfall Foundation in the event in relation to the opening (1 1=11). The Vattenfall Foundation focuses on employee volunteer work and is always looking for relevant ways to make an impact on its own organisation and the world. The foundation took advantage of the festive opening of the HKZ wind farm as an opportunity to demonstrate its personal involvement in this unique Vattenfall project. To create an opening with impact for the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm, we developed a statement on a major scale, involving hundreds of volunteers from the Vattenfall Foundation to celebrate this significant achievement. With the ‘life-sized Human Turbine’ on the beach at IJmuiden, we made tangible the fact that one wind turbine is a whopping 250 metres in size.
Before forming the Human Turbine, the volunteers from the Vattenfall Foundation took part in a large-scale beach clean-up on the beach at IJmuiden. For Vattenfall, this was a fantastic way to show how its employees feel a sense of personal involvement in the company’s ambitious goals.
In forming the Human Turbine on the beach with volunteers from the Vattenfall Foundation – colleagues who travelled to IJmuiden from around the entire country to contribute to both a clean beach and the opening of the HKZ – underscored the importance of teamwork at the organisation. This was particularly clear when a downpour suddenly erupted over the heads of these volunteers/colleagues right before the moment suprême of the opening. They continued to stand as a team so that His Majesty the King could open the wind farm. In doing so, the colleagues showed that, like the team that built the wind farm, they were able to handle adversity and overcome challenges. The volunteers still talk about this memorable day.
On cue from His Majesty the King Willem-Alexander, the umbrellas were opened and the life-size Human Turbine revealed, confirming once again the personal involvement of all Vattenfall volunteers in an historic image. The King gave a big round of applause to the Vattenfall Foundation for supporting the parent company’s sustainability goals as a single, united team. A clear message to both partners and sustainability enthusiasts.
Basic information about the event
Name of the organiser
XSAGA
Location
Beach of IJmuiden, The Netherlands
Event duration
28/09/23 - 29/09/23
Client
Vattenfall
VOTING LINK
Event results
Creativity
Hollandse Kust Zuid wrote history with the opening of the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm. The 139 wind turbines provide no fewer than 1 1/2 million households in the Netherlands with energy, while creating thousands of jobs for people in the region. We wanted to translate these impressive figures into an opening with impact. We came up with the idea for a life-sized statement with hundreds of volunteers from the Vattenfall Foundation to celebrate this significant achievement. With this ‘life-sized Human Turbine’, we made tangible the fact that one wind turbine is a whopping 250 metres in size.
On the windy beach at IJmuiden next to the most sustainable beach pavilion in the Netherlands, we erected a tent for the programme itself. A transparent glass wall, offering fantastic views of the sea, emphasised the connection to the sea and wind and, in the distance, the turbines of the wind farm.
We kicked off the programme with a special tribute to the elements with a performance by trumpet player André Heuvelman, who helped to make all those present even more aware of the power and beauty of nature. He later performed a second time to images specially created to share the beauty of the underwater world with all those present. (Awareness of nature, especially the underwater world, is extremely important when procuring this type of immense ‘construction project’ at sea. With this video, we emphasised the importance Vattenfall attaches to preserving ecology.
Under the direction of the highly personally committed Froukje Jansen (well-known hostess with a soft spot for sustainability and the climate), we looked back together with our partners from the world of politics and the business community on the various steps of this spectacular project. But above all, we looked ahead to the future and the challenges of the energy transition, sustainability and climate change. Everyone agreed on the necessity to take significant steps together and that positive results are always the product of close collaboration. And that collaboration is what we are celebrating today. The success of the project also encourages us to continue to dream big.
Naturally, children also played an important role in the programme. Talking about the new generation also means engaging in dialogue with them, which resulted in, among other things, a surprise performance by 12-year-old trumpet player Ferran van den Berg, who proudly took the stage. To the sounds of his trumpet, His Majesty the King and the executives from Vattenfall, BASF and Allianz exited the tent and made their way to the beach where the life-sized Human Turbine was revealed. This impressive moment with an impact marked the official opening of the Hollandse Kust Zuid Wind Farm!
Innovation
No unique technical innovations were used during this event. Because the content was the focus and the choice of an opening action in which the spotlight was on the people of Vattenfall and not a technical innovation, the opening was experienced as distinctive and personal.
Execution
Project management scheduled a weekly external project team meeting during which important topics were discussed and the schedule and deadlines reviewed. On the basis of these meetings, biweekly production meetings were organised with the most important suppliers in order to organise efficient production and logistics planning.
Biweekly safety meetings were also held separately, during which XSAGA and Vattenfall discussed all important aspects related to the safety of the materials to be used, weather scenarios, risk analyses and method statements. Security meetings were also held periodically. The goal of these meetings was to analyse risks and discuss the security and risks involved in the visit from the royal family. The risk analyses and weather scenarios discussed during the safety meetings were also on the agenda of the security meetings.
Two weeks prior to the project, pre-production meetings were organised with suppliers and all parties involved.
During the assembly and disassembly process, meticulous coordination took place with all suppliers because the event site was located in a protected nature area. Also considered were regular visitors to the beach and efforts were made to ensure to inconvenience them as little as possible.
There was frequent contact with the Vattenfall PR team before the event to discuss the types of photos and video images that would be made by XSAGA in order to coordinate the deliverables as meticulously as possible to ensure the most effective results.
Measurable results
Energy transition efforts were successfully communicated, as well as the milestones achieved, even if this is not always visible from the mainland (far out at sea). Not only did all stakeholders respond to this with considerable enthusiasm (thereby strengthening this connection), but the media also devoted considerable coverage to the project:
- It was shown several times on TV, both national and regional (RTL Nieuws and NH Nieuws)
- It appeared in no fewer than 26 international, national and regional magazines and journals, both in print and online
Important here was the fact that we devoted considerable attention to the ‘money shot’, the one picture that would appear in the press: the King with the CEO of Vattenfall in the foreground and the Human Turbine on the beach in the background. In our first concept presentation to Vattenfall, we showed a sketch of how we believed the opening moment should look and as you can see in the enclosed photos, this is exactly what happened and this picture made it into the newspaper. (Creation, execution, publication).
Communication
It is important for Vattenfall to show how it contributes to solving the complex challenges of the energy transition in balance with nature/ecology. The HKZ Wind Farm is an iconic and important project for Vattenfall and BA Wind. By inviting all their important business partners, both national and international, they could share the moment in an original way. This also provided an opportunity to share the message of ‘it takes a team effort’ as an indirect appeal to the guests of the event.
The construction of such a large wind farm is a huge achievement and milestone for Vattenfall in terms of preparation, investment and realisation. The various aspects of the event (films, music, photos) made this milestone clearly visible to the organisation and partners in attendance, and received the public attention it deserved.
For Vattenfall, this event was an excellent opportunity to communicate its profile, also within the context of future contracts. And this was definitely achieved since Vattenfall recently won a contract for a new wind farm, Zeevonk, an electrolyser for converting wind farm energy to green hydrogen.
Sustainable practices
At the beach, we were guests of the Beach Inn, the most sustainable beach pavilion in the Netherlands. We used their electricity, which is 100% generated from solar energy, worked with local suppliers and kept the number of transport movements to a minimum by preparing an extensive and detailed logistics plan beforehand in order to minimise CO2 emissions. All transport from the esplanade to the beach took place with electric vehicles.
