Vattenfall wins Dutch subsidy-free offshore wind tender

The Dutch government has selected Vattenfall AB as the winning bidder in the country’s first zero-subsidy offshore wind tender for sites I and II of the Hollandse Kust Zuid zone.

The Swedish state-owned utility announced on Monday it has secured a permit for a wind power complex of between 700 MW and 750 MW in the Dutch part of the North Sea. The wind farm, to be able to produce electricity for up to 1.5 million households, has to be operational by 2022.

Following completion, the offshore wind park will become the first one in the world to be constructed without using subsidies.

The Hollandse Kust Zuid zone comprises four separate sites. The subsidy-free tender was for two of the 350-MW portions, known as Hollandse Kust I and II. The bidding process for the next sites, namely the Hollandse Kust Zuid III and IV as well as Hollandse Kust Noord, will be opened later this year and in 2019, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) said in a separate statement. Each of the two zones can accommodate a wind farm of 350 MW.

According to RVO, the cost of offshore wind has dropped by 55% in the last permit procedure from EUR 0.124 (USD 0.153) per kWh in 2013, indicating “it is now possible to construct and operate a wind farm without subsidy.”

Vattenfall secured the winning bid through Chinook CV, a unit of its subsidiary Nuon. The state-owned utility said it will now start making final preparations for the project, including the wind farm’s design, internal planning issues and the tender for major equipment.

This will be Vattenfall’s second offshore wind project in the Netherlands. In 2016, it won the Kriegers Flak offshore wind tender in Denmark with a record low bid of EUR 49.9 per MWh.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.235)

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