Before it was named one of the backbones of energy transition and saw multiple new projects announced worldwide, and in more countries than ever before, offshore wind had one main quest – cost reduction. While this is, to some extent, also true today – the industry has long passed the price thresholds set several years ago and a few of the sector’s firsts in this regard happened in the Netherlands.

Back in 2016, the Dutch government announced the winners of its first two Borssele tenders, first in July when Ørsted (then DONG Energy) crossed the mark of € 100/MWh by bidding 7.27 Eurocents per KWh, and then five months later when the Blauwwind consortium made headlines with a new record price – 5.45 Eurocents per KWh – thus brining the sector close to its aim of reaching levelized cost of energy (LCoE) of EUR 50 per MWh.