Dutch gov to kick off Borssele offshore wind innovation tender in Jan

The Dutch government plans to issue a call for tender for the up-to-20-MW Borssele Wind Farm Site V (BWFS V) in the North Sea on January 2, 2018, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (NEA) reveals in a document.

According to the final version of the project site description (PSD) for the BWFS V innovation site, final bid submissions are due on January 18, 2018. The tender will award an SDE+ operating grant with a price cap of EUR 54.49 per MWh, a permit and an investment subsidy. The total subsidy for BWFS V is capped at EUR 57 million (USD 68m), with the available investment grant and the available operating grant being capped at EUR 42 million and EUR 15 million, respectively.

BWFS V is an innovation site, originally included as part of Borssele Wind Farm Site III (BWFS III), where up to two turbines with a maximum combined capacity of 20 MW can be deployed for testing. The site will be connected to the transmission network already planned for the BWFS III and IV offshore wind farms, and because of that substantial cost savings could be achieved compared to a standalone project.

Electricity generation at the innovation site will be able to start on August 31, 2020 at the earliest, when transmission system operator TenneT's Borssele beta grid connection system is expected to be ready.

In December, a consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS:RDSA) won the tender to build the Borssele III and IV offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 700 MW. Borssele III and IV will make up the second out of five wind farms planned for Dutch waters, each with a capacity of 700 MW, that are all expected to be operational by 2023.

The tender for the right to build the Borssele I and II parks, of 350 MW each, was won by Dong Energy A/S (CPH:DENERG) in the summer of 2016.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.197)

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