Dutch consortium eyes offshore wind at EUR 0.07/kWh by 2030

A large group of Dutch companies aims to bring to just EUR 0.07 (USD 0.078) per kWh the cost of offshore wind by 2030.

Today at the Winddagen 2016 congress the GROW (Growth through Research, development & demonstration in Offshore Wind) consortium will present its innovation programme. Its plan is to spend over EUR 100 million in five years on research, development and demonstration activities. The first projects are seen to start this autumn.

The founders of the consortium are Delft Offshore Turbine, Deltares, ECN, Eneco, Lagerwey, LM Wind Power, Royal IHC, RWE, Seaway Heavy Lifting, Shell, Sif, TenneT, TNO, TU Delft, Van Oord, and Volker Stevin International. Their goal is to see offshore wind competitive with other renewable energy sources and fossil fuels without subsidy.

The GROW consortium is the successor of the FLOW (Far and Large Offshore Wind) research programme through which 13 Dutch firms and research institutes have cut offshore wind costs by 20%.

Currently, GROW’s members are discussing options for government support and cooperation with the economic affairs ministry and the Topsector Energy.

This spring, the Netherlands launched a tender for the Borssele I and II projects off the coast of Zeeland, each of 350 MW. Firms had to bid below EUR 0.124 per kWh. Economic affairs minister Henk Kamp announced in May that based on initial impressions the cost for the two wind parks would be lower than anticipated.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.121)

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