News item | 20-12-2023 | 07:00
Today the CrossWind consortium completed the construction of the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm. The Netherlands has now achieved a total of 4.7 GW of offshore wind energy, accounting for approximately 16% of the total current electricity consumption in the Netherlands. The target of 4.5 GW agreed in 2013 has therefore been achieved comfortably and within the agreed time. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate will also start next week the process for awarding two of the largest offshore wind farms to date, with 4 GW of offshore wind energy being licensed in one go. Almost as much as the total capacity of the existing wind farms combined.
Because the Netherlands is becoming more sustainable, we need more and more sustainable electricity. Offshore wind will become the largest source of sustainable energy for Europe. Significant steps have already been taken in this regard over the past 10 years. The 2013 Energy Agreement stipulated that the Netherlands would have 4.5 GW of offshore wind energy in operation by 2023. This has been amply achieved with a capacity of 4.7 GW. We succeeded on time, within budget and with almost no subsidies. This is an important milestone for the Dutch and European wind industry. Since 2018, plots for offshore wind farms off the Dutch coast have been granted subsidy-free permits. So far there have been 5. The realization phase after the award of offshore wind farms has been shortened considerably in recent years, from 7 to 10 years to 3 to 4 years. One of the pillars of this efficiency drive is the Dutch ‘one-stop-shop’ principle for tenders for offshore wind farms. This means that a project developer of offshore wind farms can contact the central government for all information and permits.
2024: largest tender round in the Netherlands to date
The next tenders for offshore wind energy will open at the end of February 2024. This concerns the IJmuiden Ver wind energy area, Alpha and Beta plots. It is the largest wind energy area in the Netherlands. The plots together account for 4 GW at once. The wind farms will be located more than sixty kilometers from the Dutch coast, near IJmuiden. They are expected to be put into use in 2029 and 2030.
Next week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate will publish the final tender regulations and the final site decisions. The ministry is also publishing an amended ‘offshore wind energy implementation regulation’ to ensure that safety can be taken even more into account during the permit procedure. The tenders consist of a so-called comparative test with an additional financial offer. This method has also been applied in the tenders for Hollandse Kust (west). Ecology and integration of the electricity produced into the energy system are important points in the tenders; the government wants to stimulate solution-oriented and innovative bids. By the end of 2031, the Netherlands wants to achieve approximately 21 GW of installed offshore wind energy capacity.
Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy: “The North Sea will become the supplier of green electricity for Europe and an indispensable part of the sustainable energy system of the future. In recent years, the Netherlands has made great strides with nature-oriented and technical innovations, costs have fallen and we have started working increasingly more efficiently. We can be proud of that. I am also pleased that we can now take an important step forward with the largest one
Dutch tender round so far.”
For the celebration of 10 years of the ‘Routemap Wind at Sea’, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency has made the mini-documentary ‘The story of winning at sea’, which can be viewed at windopzee.nl.