Policy Offshore Wind Energy
The Netherlands has committed to the EU targets:
- 14% renewable energy in 2020
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in 2020 compared to 1990
In 2011, the Dutch government published The Energy Report 2011. This report contains the measures that the Netherlands shall take to change the dependence on fossil fuels and gradually switch to renewable energy. In the report there is a paragraph on offshore wind energy. This paragraph takes into account the advice of The Taskforce Windenergie op zee. This taskforce investigated how the governement optimally can achieve its target for offshore wind energy. This target is to achieve, with the best possible cooperation between government and industry, 6000 MW offshore wind energy in 2020.
Green Deal Offshore Wind
On 3 October 2011 the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture an Innovation and the Netherlands Wind Energy Association (NWEA), on behalf of the wind sector, signed the Green Deal Offshore Wind. In this Green Deal the main concerns are concrete initiatives and a better public-private cooperation. The Green Deal must show that green and growth go hand in hand. In the Green Deal it is agreed that the current policy must change. For example the policy for spatial planning to allow wind farms and the policy around the construction of the cables at sea. One of the more concrete goals that are set, is to achieve a reduction of the costs of Offshore Wind Energy (40% in 2020). The Green Deal also enables innovations to be tested en demonstrated. You can download all the agreements that the NWEA and the Ministry of EL&I have made here;
- Green Deal Offshore Wind Energy (pdf, in Dutch only)
Financial support
The government has set up a subsidy scheme to boost the production of sustainable energy (wind, solar and bio energy). This so called SDE subsidy scheme subsidises the exploitation of new sustainable energy projects, in other words the production of renewable gas and electricity.
For the period 2008-2011 the Government had allocated a budget of 4.5 billion euros to stimulate offshore wind energy. At the beginning of the year 2010 the government opened a tender for SDE subsidy that closed on March 1, 2010. Parties that were in possession of a construction permit according to the Wbr regulation were able to submit a bid for a requested level of production subsidy. After a correction for the distance of the project to shore, the proposals were ranked according to the corrected price levels. ZeeEnergie C.V and Buitengaats C.V. won the tender. Together these projects, both initiatives from the Bard Group, amount to a total of 600 MW. In November 2011, a wind farm of around 120 MW capacity in block Q10 on the North Sea has been granted a subsidy from the remaining budget. This farm will also demonstrate new technologies to stimulate innovative building techniques.
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Far and Large Offshore Wind (FLOW)
In May 2010, the government awarded a EUR 23.5 million subsidy to the innovation project Far and Large Offshore Wind (FLOW).
The budget is earmarked for the first phase of the FLOW project, which will be implemented over a four-year period. This phase entails the research into and development of efficient wind turbines in the North Sea and innovative foundation concepts, installation techniques for wind farms at a greater water depth and at a greater distance offshore, and control technologies and maintenance strategies. The connection of these wind farms to the power grid also forms part of the project.
The consortium running the initiative is made up of companies and knowledge institutions, i.e. Essent , Eneco , TenneT, Ballast Nedam, Van Oord, IHC Merwede, 2-B Energy, XEMC Darwind, ECN and Delft University of Technology.
To learn more about FLOW, visit: http://flow-offshore.nl
