Wood has completed work on Shell’s first solar PV plant, located at the Shell Nederland Chemie Moerdijk Chemical Facility in Moerdijk, near Breda in the Netherlands.
The 27 MWp Moerdijk Solar PV Plant, which consists of 76,000 solar PV panels, is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the Netherlands. The project is generating power for the onsite chemical facility, which manufactures base chemicals from the petroleum fractions naphtha, hydrowax, gasoil and LPG.
Wood acted as owner’s engineer throughout the pre-construction and construction phases of the project. As part of this 16-month contract, the clean energy team provided the technical procurement expertise for Shell through the drafting and tendering of the engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) and operation & maintenance (O&M) contracts, construction monitoring, commissioning, performance testing and completion verification.
Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood's Specialist Technical Solutions business, said: “We are delighted to have supported Shell’s New Energies business on the Moerdijk Solar PV Plant. This project is a great example of one of the steps Shell is taking to play an active role in the energy transition.”
Across its portfolio of refineries and chemicals plants, Shell is taking active steps to improve utilization, energy efficiency and reduce the carbon intensity of their operations. Other examples of Shell’s work in the Netherlands on the energy transition include offshore wind in the North Sea, electric mobility at its retail sites and residual heat from Shell Pernis.
Wood’s expertise in the delivery of large-scale projects, engineering and technical services across energy and industrial sectors underpins its key strengths in supporting clients through the energy transition.