The Dutch government has awarded Swedish energy company Vattenfall the permit to build a 700 MW non-subsidised offshore wind farm, in the Netherlands, North Sea, which could produce renewable electricity for 1 to 1.5 million homes.
In December, Vattenfall submitted a bid for the first of the two 350 MW slots known as Hollandse Kust I and II. The company beat Norwegian Statoil and German Innogy in the tender, and its Dutch subsidiary Nuon will construct and operate the wind farm, with an expected completion by 2022, Reuters reported.
According the tender rules, the wind farm needs to be fully operational within 5 years after an irrevocable permit.
Magnus Hall, Vattenfall’s President and CEO, said:
This is excellent news for Vattenfall and the Netherlands. It is a significant step for us in view of our ambitions to grow in renewable energy production. We have previously announced that we intend to invest SEK 13 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) in growth investments in wind power for the period 2017-2018. The Netherlands is an important market for us and this will be our second offshore project there. It’s a great honor for us to get the opportunity to contribute with this project to the transformation of the Dutch energy system.
The Hollandse Kust was the third of five tenders being held by the Netherlands in a bid to create 3,500 MW of offshore wind power by 2023. The first two projects, for 700 MW each, were awarded in 2016 to Danish Orsted and a consortium of Shell and Eneco.
Vattenfall will now make the final preparations for this project including the design of the wind farm, continuation of the internal planning and finalizing the tender process for major components.
