New offshore wind farms are coming to the Netherlands, and the Dutch Council of Ministers has approved where the new farms will be built. Bidding for the wind farms will start in 2025.
The Netherlands aims for a 10.7 GW development which would be divided into three new sites; Nederwiek, Lagelander, and Doordewind. Two other areas from the designated list will also get new farms, including the northern part of Ijmuiden Ver and the southern part of Hollandse Kust West.
The whole network of farms will generate nearly 21 GW by 2030. This is almost double the Netherlands target of 11 GW capacity from offshore farms according to the Coalition Agreement and the Climate Agreement of 2019.
TenneT has been tapped to connect the new farms to land, costing €16bn. The company will begin to award the contracts for the individual component even before the final approvals have been granted.
According to the Dutch Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten, “We want to make the North Sea our largest green energy source. That’s a huge job. The construction of a wind farm and the connection to the electricity grid takes several years, during which we constantly pay attention to the ecological impact. In order to achieve our goals for 2030, we are now in a hurry to get the wind farms up and running as quickly as possible.”
Wind generated about 2.5 GW of energy in 2021, according to government records. The country wants to increase it to at least 4.5 GW by 2023 to comply with its Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth commitment. Offshore wind energy is expected to supply 3.3 percent of the country’s energy needs by that time.
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