Netherlands Looking to Tender its Largest Offshore Wind Power Projects Next Year

The Netherlands is expediting to expand the renewable energy development in a bid to end fossil fuel imports from Russia and decarbonize its economy. In a latest key development, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) has said that it is working on plans to amalgamate the first four offshore wind energy sites at IJmuiden Ver and they will be tendered together.

This implies that site III and site IV will also be auctioned with the first two sites in 2023 and not in 2025. The tender is expected to be largest in the history of the country’s RE development. The statement by the Ministry also means that the total capacity of the tender for the four sites will be a massive 4-GW that the Netherlands government will award in 2023.

As per reports that tender will have additional stipulations that will range from ecological to responsible business. The information was shared during a workshop in Amsterdam by the Ministry recently.

Planning of Tender

The Dutch Government is learning from past tendering processes and other countries to come up with a robust tender for the four offshore sites’ tender. The government will pool the four sites into two areas of 2 GW each, something that wasn’t done during Hollandse Kust West (HKW) auctions.

Emelie de Wagt, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK), said, “We have decided to do this because we believe this will further enable economies of scale. This is also in line with the direction in which the international market is moving.” The official also informed that the number of sites that can be awarded per bidding entity will not be capped in the tender. But the government is looking to cap the number of applications an entity can submit per tender.

The Ministry is also mulling to include financial bid as a key requirement in the tender. The financial bid for the ongoing Hollandse Kust West tender has been kept at EUR 50 million. For IJmuiden Ver wind sites, the government will keep the financial bid higher due to the significant value of RE sites and to safeguard competition.

As per reports, the revenue earned will be employed support integration the renewable energy developments in the North Sea with other economic activities in the very area.

As per Ministry, the four offshore wind sites of IJmuiden Ver sites will be operational in 2028 and 2029. Sites III and IV will be the first to be commissioned. Two more sites will be developed in the area taking the total capacity to 6 GW. The government opines that this will help in achieving the offshore wind target of 21 GW by the end of this decade.