This afternoon, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy announced the result of the subsidy free tender for the Hollandse Kust Noord Wind Farm Zone Site, located 18.5 km off the west coast of the Netherlands. It has awarded the permit to CrossWind consortium, a joint venture between Shell in the Netherlands and Eneco.
Hollandse Kust Noord is one of three areas that were assigned by the Dutch government in 2014 for the development of offshore wind by 2023. The application round ran from April 2 to 30. Known applicants include Ørsted and a consortium of Shell and Eneco. Swedish developer Vattenfall who previously won the Hollandse Kust Zuid 1 & 2 tenders, revealed at an early stage that it would not enter a bid.
Hollandse Kust (noord) Wind Farm Zone Site covers around 125 km². Approximately 25% of it is located within the 12 miles zone of the Dutch territories. This means a seabed lease has to be established between the wind farm operator and The Central Government Real Estate Agency.
The consortium plans to have Hollandse Kust (noord) operational in 2023 with an installed capacity of 759 MW, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year. The offshore wind farm will include the following five technology demonstrations that could be implemented at full-scale in the future: a floating solar park; short-term battery storage; turbines that are optimally tuned to the network to minimise the negative ‘wake’-effects that wind turbines have on each other; ‘green hydrogen’ made by electrolysis as a further storage technique and the combination of these individual measures to ensure a continuous power supply regardless of the wind situation.
Maarten Wetselaar, Director of Shell Integrated Gas and New Energies, comments: “We are proud to realise Hollandse Kust (noord) together with our joint venture partner, Eneco. Offshore wind will play a pivotal role in the worldwide energy transition. It will also be another important next step in our ambition to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner, in step with society. This wind farm is a crucial part of a new value chain – from wind to hydrogen – with our ambition to build a green hydrogen plant in Rotterdam and with NortH2. This investment fits very well with Shell’s aspirations to competitively deliver more and cleaner energy to our customers, at home, on the go and at work.”
Kees-Jan Rameau, Chief Strategic Growth Officer Eneco, adds: “We are pleased that we, together with our trusted partners, are making another major contribution to the Dutch energy transition. We are using our combined experience, expertise and financial capacity for the rapid realisation of the first offshore innovative wind farm focused on system integration. The sustainable, locally generated energy will make an important contribution to our ambition to support every household and company in the Netherlands to switch to a sustainable and clean energy supply.”
Shell and Eneco are also partners (along with Partners Group, DGE en Van Oord ) in the 731,5 MW Borssele III & IV offshore wind farm which is currently under construction. Eneco is also the owner of the 129 MW Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm, situated 23 km off the coast between Noordwijk and Zandvoort, which has been operational since 2015, and the Prinses Amalia Wind Farm off the coast of IJmiden which has been operational since 2008. Shell is the owner, together with Vattenfall, of the Egmond Aan Zee offshore wind farm (2006).
Connection
Apart from the seabed lease for the wind turbines, a rental agreement for the infield cabling between the wind turbines and the TenneT platform has to be signed. TenneT is responsible for the offshore connection. Hollandse Kust Noord will have one offshore platform. TenneT awarded the contract to ENGIE Fabricom and Iemants in May of this year. Here the wind turbines are connected and the 66 kV is transformed to 220 kV for further transportation via two export cables to the land connection. The route of the cables on land is about 10 kilometers long and runs from the sea (at the beach near Noorderbad) via the future transformer station (site between the Tussenwijkweg and Tata Steel) to the existing high-voltage station at Beverwijk. TenneT plans to start with the onshore connection after the summer.
11 GW by 2030
The Netherlands has set a target to reach around 11 GW of offshore wind by 2030. The Dutch Government has identified several offshore wind development zones to reach this goals: Borssele (under construction), Hollandse Kust (zuid) (under construction), the today announced Hollandse Kust (noord), Hollandse Kust (west), Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden and IJmuiden Ver.
