Renewable

January 13 (Renewables Now) - SSE Renewables, a unit of UK utility SSE Plc (LON:SSE), on Thursday said it plans to take part in the upcoming auction for the 1.4-GW Hollandse Kust (west) wind farm zone in the Netherlands, which will be open to bids from April 14 to May 12, 2022.

In late December, the Dutch government published revised draft ministerial orders for granting permits to develop the two 700-MW sites within the zone in the North Sea. These include points-based criteria for assessing bids.

SSE Renewables welcomed the fact that half of the scoring is based on innovation with a focus on ecological innovation for one of the sites and systems integration innovation for the other. It said the approach is an opportunity to use its ecological and systems integration expertise. The other half of the scoring is based on a one-off financial payment, knowledge and experience, financial standing and energy yield, the developer noted.

The tender will include a financial bid, capped at EUR 50 million (USD 57m), with bidding the full amount to bring the maximum points of 20. Thus, for the zone’s site VI for instance the maximum points are distributed in the following way: financial bid - 20 points; certainty of building the wind farm - 40 points; energy supply - 40 points; and contribution to ecology - 100 points.

SSE Renewables’ plans to participate in the tender come as the company is pursuing opportunities to export its offshore wind development skills. It recently entered into the Japanese offshore wind market and says it is actively exploring options in Poland, Portugal, Spain and the US.

The Hollandse Kust (west) projects could contribute to SSE’s targets of increasing its installed renewables capacity by 4GW to 8 GW by 2026 and to over 13 GW by 2030.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.137)