The Netherlands has the ambition to have multiple offshore windfarms operational by 2030 to fulfil climate agreements. The future wind farms will be constructed in sites located offshore of the North-Holland coast and north of the Wadden Isles. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands recently gained insight into the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) of different variants for the wind farm sites considered for Hollandse Kust (west), Ten Noorden van de Waddeneilanden and IJmuiden Ver.
BLIX Consultancy and Pondera Consult provided the study. Sites with varying energy density (in MW per km2) were considered. The LCoE was modelled per individual turbine with yield simulations and a financial model based on recent market prices.
The results of this study were discussed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Dutch wind industry. The tender of the first project in this study (Hollandse Kust (west)) is planned in 2020/2021.
Ben de Sonneville, researcher BLIX Consultancy:
“We are proud to have contributed to optimising the wind farm zones of the Dutch offshore wind roadmap 2030. We gained interesting new insights. The results reveal which site alternatives have lowest costs (LCoE) for wind farm development. Also, the study shows which factors (such as site orientation, water depth, wakes) influence the LCoE in each zone and which subareas are most economic for wind farm development.”
Study can be downloaded from the website of RVO.nl