Dutch Powerhouses Reveal Zero Subsidy Offshore Wind Play

The Witwind consortium of Shell, Van Oord and Eneco has submitted a bid in the subsidy-free tender for the construction and operation of the Hollandse Kust (zuid) III and IV wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.

The consortium plans to start the operation of the Hollandse Kust (zuid) III and IV sites in 2023. The wind farms are expected to have a total installed capacity of about 760MW and will be situated 20 kilometres off the coast of The Hague in the Netherlands.

Marjan van Loon, President Director Shell Netherlands: ”Shell wants to play an active role in the Dutch energy transition. Offshore wind will play an important role in the future energy system of the Netherlands and we would be happy to grow our offshore wind portfolio in the Netherlands building on the experience gained in Borssele III & IV and Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee.”

The consortium said that it would not disclose any further details regarding the tender. Shell, Eneco, and Van Oord, together with Diamond Generating Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, are also part of the Blauwwind II consortium which is developing the 731.5MW Borssele III & IV project

”Van Oord has been involved in the construction of all Dutch offshore wind farms so far. Thanks to years of experience and knowledge of our people, the deployment of our own innovative vessels and the valuable cooperation with partners, we succeed in staying ahead and thus efficiently building offshore projects in the future,” Pieter van Oord, CEO of Van Oord, said.

As reported earlier, the Dutch government opened the zero-subsidy tendering round for the Hollandse Kust (zuid) III and IV on 1 March. The round closes on 14 March.

Swedish energy company Vattenfall, the winner of the first Dutch subsidy free offshore wind tender, has also submitted a bid to develop Hollandse Kust (zuid) III and IV.