The Dutch government has presented the Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030, setting out plans for the development of additional 7GW of offshore wind capacity in the 2024-2030 period.
The roadmap specifies which wind farm zones will be released for development in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, when this will occur, the projected generation capacity of these zones, and when they will be taken into operation.
The wind farms to be prepared in the coming years will be located in three wind farm zones: the 1.4GW Holland Coast (West) (Hollandse Kust (west)), the 700MW North of the Wadden Sea Islands (Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden), and the 4GW IJmuiden Far Offshore (IJmuiden Ver), with 0.9GW of capacity yet to be designated. The tenders for the new wind farm zones will be opened from 2021 onward, starting with the Holland Coast (West), and the wind farms are expected to be commissioned between 2024 and 2030.
Like the current roadmap for the period up to 2023, the new roadmap will provide guidelines for the further development of offshore wind energy in the period up to 2030. TenneT will connect the offshore wind farms via a so-called offshore grid.
Under the current National Energy Agreement concluded in 2013, five offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 3.5GW will be built in the Dutch sector of the North Sea in the period until 2023, in addition to the existing wind farms, which have a total capacity of 1GW. In total, the Netherlands now plans to have 11.5GW of operating offshore wind capacity by 2030 which would cover 40% of the current electricity consumption in the country.
If built out to the projected capacity, these offshore wind farm projects would create up to 10,000 jobs and bring up to EUR 20 billion in investments, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change said.