A Royal Dutch Shell-led consortium has won the rights to construct the Borssele III and IV offshore wind projects, which have a combined capacity of 700MW, in the Dutch North Sea. The consortium also comprises Van Oord NV, Eneco and Diamond Generating Europe, a wholly-owned unit of Mitsubishi. Planned to be built about 22km out of the coast of Zeeland in The Netherlands, the Borssele III & IV projects will be operated with a subsidy of €300m which is substantially lower than the originally expected subsidy of €5bn. Two projects are designed to generate more than 3.200GWh of power per annum. The partner made a bidding price of €54.50 ($57.99) per MWh for the wind project. The tender marks the second of five bidding rounds planned by the government. Earlier, Danish state-owned utility Dong Energy won right to build the Borssele I and II parks, with an average bid strike price of €72.70/ MWh. Netherlands Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp said: “If the electricity price develops as we expect, in 7.5 years’ time subsidies will no longer be required for the production of electricity from offshore wind farms. “That brings the Government's aim for renewables to compete with fossil fuels without subsidy within reach. “The realization of the offshore wind farms is a boost for the industry. We expect that by 2020 around 10,000 jobs will be created by these projects.” MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has been selected as preferred wind turbines supplier by the consortium for the Borssele III and IV wind projects. It is a 50/50 joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems. Image: The Borssele III and IV offshore wind farms will be build offshore Netherlands. Photo: courtesy of Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl).
A consortium led by Shell is to construct two offshore wind projects in the Dutch North Sea with a combined capacity of 700 MW. The Borssele III & IV projects will generate over 3,200 GWh of power each year and operate with a €300m ($319m) subsidy, lower than the expected €5bn subsidy. In addition, the Netherlands has announced plans for an additional 200 MW of onshore wind, which would be built on land rather than at sea. MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems, has been chosen as preferred turbine supplier for the projects.