Renewable

July 11 (Renewables Now) - Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall AB has emerged as the winner in the tender for sites III and IV of the Hollandse Kust Zuid zone off the coast of the Netherlands.

The results of the country’s second zero-subsidy tender for offshore wind were announced on Wednesday by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). With the successful bid, Vattenfall will build and operate the 760-MW wind park within the two sites and will pay around EUR 2 million (USD 2.26m) annually in ground rent for the seabed area. Its rivals in the competition were Denmark’s Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED), Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS:RDSA) and Dutch utility Eneco, among others.

To be connected to the mainland through transmission system operator TenneT’s network, the wind farm will generate electricity for one million homes and cover over 2.5% of the Netherlands’ power needs. Offshore construction will begin in 2022, while the plant is required to be put on stream within five years after the permit for it becomes irrevocable, Vattenfall said separately.

Vattenfall won the Hollandse Kust Zuid I and II projects, of 760 MW in total, in the first Dutch offshore tender held in March 2018. The utility is now getting ready to start building the two sites, which are scheduled for completion in 2023.

“We can bundle now the projects Hollandse Kust Zuid 1&2 and 3&4 which is a great advantage leading to further optimization and synergies”, says Gunnar Groebler, senior vice president and head of business area wind of Vattenfall.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.128)