ECN: R&D, Innovation Play Important Role in Cost Reduction

Following the announcement of the Borssele III and IV tender result, Dutch energy research institute ECN said that R&D and innovation play an important role in current trend towards lower cost of offshore wind power.

After the price achieved at the previous tender earlier this year, won by DONG Energy, the winner at the latest Borssele tender, a consortium comprising Shell, Eneco, Van Oord and Mitsubishi, succeeded in offering the lowest price of offshore wind power per kWh seen in the Netherlands so far.

The trend in cost reduction in recent months is impressive. Apart from current favourable market conditions, this is also due to long-term commitment from industry and the R&D community to invest in R&D and innovation, ECN said.

This belief was also voiced by Minster Kamp, who said that innovations in the wind industry were part of the trend towards lower cost of energy, the energy research institute pointed out, adding that these R&D efforts will continue to take place in the Netherlands in the coming years, largely through the new wind energy program GROW, and ensure even more competitive prices in the future, also for sites much more challenging than Borssele.