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  Rob Koster

  Economics correspondent

The government has successfully put the largest Dutch offshore wind farm out to tender. This concerns the IJmuiden Ver wind farm, which can supply 5.5 million households with electricity with a capacity of 4 GW in 2029.

The wind farm, which will be located more than 62 kilometers off the coast, is divided into two parts and is being built by the pension fund ABP and the energy company Vattenfall.

The first part (IJmuiden Ver Alpha) is being built offshore by the ABP pension fund in cooperation with the Scottish energy company SSE Renewables under the name Noordzeker.

A condition of construction is that contributions are made to protect and restore nature in the North Sea. For example, bird protection will be taken into consideration when designing a wind turbine.

The second part of the park (IJmuiden Ver Beta) is being built by the Swedish energy company Vattenfall in cooperation with the Danish CIP under the name Zeevonk II. The focus in building this park is to better integrate into the energy system.

The companies will build a hydrogen plant in Rotterdam, where the electricity will come to the ground. In times when more electricity is generated than can be consumed, sustainable hydrogen can be produced using an electrolyzer.

The fact that there is enough interest in building these wind farms is a huge boost for outgoing Climate and Energy Minister Citén. Last year, the British government was unable to submit a similar tender. No company signed up at the time because, according to the companies, too little consideration was given to the high costs of building offshore wind farms.

“Market conditions are becoming more complex, so I am very happy that these parties want to build offshore wind farms,” he said in response. For the first time, companies were also able to provide funds upon registration to qualify for the contract.

For example, ABP and SSE Renewables have been paying more than €1 million a year to the government for forty years. Vattenfall and the Danish Investment Center even pay 20 million euros annually to the state, also for forty years.

The ABP pension fund, along with other pension funds, recently offered to invest “billions” in the Netherlands’ energy transition. Because the ABP also wants to focus on better protection of nature in and above the North Sea, it decided earlier to participate in the construction itself. To this end, it has sought to collaborate with Scottish company SSE Renewables, which has already built several British wind farms and is currently working on the largest wind farm at Dogger Bank.