Today the RVO tender for the Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm has closed. NWEA is pleased to see that with this tender for Hollandse Kust Noord, the last of the 2023 Roadmap, several bids have been made by renowned parties. There are currently wind farms in the Dutch North Sea with a total capacity of approximately 1 Gigawatt (GW). In 2023 there will be at least 4.5 GW power, which accounts for 16% of electricity consumption. In 2030 there will be approximately 11 GW of offshore wind farms; accounting for 40% of our expected electricity consumption in 2030.
After a spectacular drop in the requested subsidy amounts from the first and second tenders, the third tender was even subsidy-free. However, offshore wind farms have a tight business case. Within the fourth tender there were concerns that the 50 million Euro that had to be paid for ground lease would be a problem, however this was not the case. With the current tender, the unforeseen question was whether the Corona virus would be a letdown here, given the effect on the energy market. Vattenfall had publicly announced that it was not bidding due to Corona. Earlier they won both tenders Hollandse Kust Zuid (1400MW).
The fact that several parties now see sufficient guarantees and possibilities to place a bid offers, gives us as NWEA hope for staying on schedule for the roll-out of offshore wind.
Update 1 May: RVO has posted a message on their site indicating that they have received multiple bids. The article above has been updated to reflect this.
Update 7 mei: Today Shell and Eneco have announced their joint offer under the name CrossWind, in which they have specific attention for the development of a hydrogen plant in the port of Rotterdam.
