Nuon wins permit for Dutch offshore wind farm without subsidy

20-03-2018 Rotterdam

The new wind farm should be ready in 2022, which will make it the first in the world to be constructed without subsidy. Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy for the Netherlands, Eric Wiebes, presented the permit today to Gunnar Groebler, Vice President of Nuon’s parent company Vattenfall. Wiebes did so during his working visit to Ampelmann and HSM Offshore, two Dutch companies which are global leaders in offshore wind energy.

Minister Wiebes said: “Thanks to drastically lower costs, offshore wind farms are now being constructed without subsidy. This allows us to keep the energy transition affordable. Innovation and competition are making sustainable energy cheaper and cheaper, and much faster than expected too.”

Chinook
Chinook is a limited partnership and a subsidiary company of Nuon/Vattenfall. In 2007, Nuon and Shell constructed the first Dutch offshore wind farm, Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ). Nuon/Vattenfall have constructed wind farms totalling 1.6 GW, with another 6.5 GW planned or under construction. In terms of market share, this makes Vattenfall the fourth largest owner of offshore wind farms in Europe, after Ørsted, E.ON and Innogy. The company has had significant success in Denmark recently, winning the last three national offshore wind farm permit tenders there. Vattenfall’s offshore wind farm potfolio spans Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Offshore wind on course
The Dutch government is on course to achieve its offshore wind ambitions. The cost price of offshore wind has dropped spectacularly in recent years. Compared to the €0.124/kWh price assumed in the 2013 Energy Agreement, a cost reduction of 55% has been achieved in the last permit procedure, which means it is now possible to construct and operate a wind farm without subsidy. Including Hollandse Kust (zuid) Wind Farm Sites I and II, over 60% of the total 3,450 MW of new offshore wind planned under the Energy Agreement has been awarded to market parties and will, when fully operational, provide enough sustainable electricity for three million households.

Other offshore wind farms
In line with the Energy Agreement, construction on five large offshore wind farms in the Dutch North Sea will be in full swing up to 2023. This will take the Netherlands’ cumulative installed offshore wind capacity to over 4,500 MW. In 2016, the permit for Sites I and II of the Borssele Wind Farm Zone was awarded to Ørsted, whilst the permit for Sites III and IV in the same zone was awarded to a consortium comprising Eneco, Diamond Generating Europe, Shell and Van Oord. Invitations to submit applications for the next two offshore wind permit procedures are planned for later this year (Hollandse Kust (zuid) Wind Farm Sites III and IV) and 2019 (Hollandse Kust (noord)). The large offshore wind farms make a major contribution to the energy transition. Together they have sufficient capacity to provide sustainably generated electricity to some 6.5 million households. At the same time, producers of other green-power technologies are under pressure to also become more affordable in the short term.

Innovation site
From 2-18 January, another permit procedure took place concerning the development of Borssele Wind Farm Site V. This site is specifically intended for innovation and testing new technology. The site winner will be announced by end April.