The Dutch Government has selected the Swedish power company Vattenfall in a tender for the construction of an offshore wind project at Sites I and II of the Hollandse Hollandse Kust (Zuid) Wind Farm Zone (HKZWFZ). The facility will have a total capacity of 700 MW to 750 MW and is expected to be built by 2022.
Hollandse Kust Zuid will be the first wind park in the Netherlands to be built without public subsidies, which means that it will sell the produced power on the wholesale power market instead of relying on a revenue stabilization scheme. The park will be built and operated by Chinook, a subsidiary company of Nuon/Vattenfall. The facility location (22 km off the Dutch coast) is estimated to have good wind conditions and can offer synergies with Vattenfall's neighbouring wind park Egmond aan Zee. Vattenfall, which plans to invest SEK13bn (€1.5bn) in wind power projects over the 2017-2018 period, views the Netherlands as a strategic market.
The costs of offshore wind in Europe have been falling significantly in recent years as manufacturers bring ever larger turbines to the market. This news follows the zero-subsidy offshore wind tender which took place in Germany last year, but the chosen projects will be built only in 2024-2025, after Hollandse Kust Zuid is commissioned.