The Netherlands Charts Steady Offshore Wind Path

With 1,484MW of offshore wind capacity currently being built in the Dutch North Sea, the Netherlands is the second largest market in the world for offshore wind projects under construction, according to the Global Offshore Wind Report 2019 by World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).

The Netherlands is second only to China which currently has around 3.7GW of offshore wind capacity under construction. The United Kingdom, a global leader in terms of operating offshore wind capacity (9.7GW), currently has 714MW of capacity under construction and is third overall. Denmark is fourth with 605MW of offshore wind capacity under construction, and Germany’s 220MW currently being built was enough for the fifth place. WFO’s report defines the projects under construction as the ones where at least one foundation has been installed. The two projects that have propelled the Netherlands to the second place in the global rankings are the 752MW Borssele 1+2 and the 731.5MW Borssele 3 and 4.

DEME Group’s jack-up Innovation installed the first foundations at Ørsted’s Borssele 1+2 offshore wind farm in mid-January 2020. By the time this magazine reaches our readers, the Innovation will have installed over a quarter of the wind farm’s 94 monopile foundations at the site located some 22 kilometres off the coast of the Zeeland province. Ørsted plans to have the wind farm’s 94 Siemens Gamesa 8MW wind turbines up and running by the end of 2020.

The Borssele 3 and 4 wind farm is also being constructed off the coast of the Zeeland province, in the vicinity of Borssele 1 + 2. The wind farm is owned by the Blauwwind consortium comprising Partners Group (45%), Shell (20%), DGE (15%), Eneco Group (10%) and Van Oord (10%). Van Oord, the project’s Balance of Plant contractor, installed the first of the 77 monopile foundations at the site in October 2019. The foundations will support the 77 MHI Vestas 9.5MW wind turbines which are scheduled to be commissioned in 2021.

The Netherlands currently has 1,124MW of offshore wind capacity in operation and is ranked sixth globally. Under the National Energy Agreement concluded in 2013, the Dutch Government announced plans to build five offshore wind projects with a total capacity of 3.5GW in the Dutch sector of the North Sea by 2023. The five offshore wind projects are the Borssele 1+2, Borssele 3 and 4, Hollandse Kust (zuid) 1 and 2, Hollandse Kust (zuid) 3 and 4, and Hollandse Kust (noord).

Swedish energy company Vattenfall won the rights to develop both Hollandse Kust (zuid) projects with zero-subsidy bids. The tender for the 700MW Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm zone is planned to open in April 2020. According to Vattenfall, the subsidy-free bids were possible largely due to the Dutch government’s guarantees for the licence and network connections in their tender, which dramatically decreased the risks involved and the inherent costs.

Vattenfall will develop the two wind farm zones as one project – Hollandse Kust (zuid) 1-4. The wind farms will feature up to 140 Siemens Gamesa SG 11.0-193 DD wind turbines installed some 18 kilometres off the coast of The Hague and Noordwijk.

Speaking at the last year’s Offshore Wind Conference in Amsterdam, Keld Bennetsen, Vattenfall’s project director for Hollandse Kust Zuid, said that winning the Hollandse Kust (zuid) 3 and 4 tender allowed Vattenfall to really bring the scale-up into play by bundling the two projects.

“The Netherlands is the second largest market for offshore wind projects”

Bennetsen also identified the close collaboration Vattenfall had established within the supply chain as one of the keys to building the project subsidy-free. ‘’Despite the fact that we are going to install the first monopile in, I think, March 2022, all of the suppliers have already been selected and we know who we are going to work with,’’ Bennetsen said. With the offshore construction expected to start in 2022, the 1.5GW Hollandse Kust (zuid) 1-4 project is bound to keep the Netherlands at the top of the table in terms of the offshore wind capacity under construction. Vattenfall plans to have the first wind turbines in the water in early 2022, with the full commissioning of the project expected by mid-summer 2023.

And the Netherlands does not plan to stop there. Looking beyond 2023, the Dutch Government established the Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030, setting out plans for the development of additional 7GW of offshore wind capacity in the 2024-2030 period. The wind farms to be prepared in the coming years will be located in three wind farm zones: the 1.4GW Holland Coast (West) (Hollandse Kust (west)), the 700MW North of the Wadden Sea Islands (Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden), and the 4GW IJmuiden Far Offshore (IJmuiden Ver), with 0.9GW of capacity yet to be designated.

The tenders for the new wind farm zones will be opened from 2021 onward, starting with the Holland Coast (West), and the wind farms are expected to be commissioned between 2024 and 2030.