AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Danish energy firm Orsted said on Friday it had finished building the largest offshore wind farm of the Netherlands, the first in a range that should boost the country’s share of sustainable energy in the coming decade.
The 752 megawatt (MW) wind farm is currently the second largest in the world, Orsted said, and will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of around a million Dutch households.
The ‘Borssele’ wind farm consists of 94 turbines spread over 112 square kilometres (43.2 square miles) in the North Sea, some 23 kilometres (14 miles) off the Dutch coast.
Orsted won the right to build the wind farm in an auction in 2016, at what was a record low subsidy on the electricity delivered at the time.
Since then, the Dutch government has granted the right to build wind farms with a total capacity of 2800 MW at four other sites in the North Sea, offering no subsidy on electricity prices at the last three auctions.
It aims to grant permits for another 6100 MW of wind power through four tenders in the next five years.
Energy from renewable sources, such as wind, solar and biomass, made up almost 9% of all energy used in the Netherlands last year, up from 7.4% in 2018.
The Dutch aim to get 40% of all their electricity from wind farms by 2030, with solar panels delivering another 30% of all power needed by then.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
