RVO Invites Bids for Hollandse Kust Noord Geophysical Investigations

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl), part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, issued a call for tenders for geophysical soil investigations at the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm zone on 5 April. 

RVO.nl will award a contract to a tenderer who is able to carry out the geophysical investigations required to obtain the soil information at the Hollandse Kust Noord zone, one of the three offshore wind areas chosen by the Dutch government to be developed and to contribute to the country’s aim of having 3.5GW of new build offshore wind connected to the grid in 2023.

The objective of the geophysical soil investigation is to improve the bathymetrical, morphological and geological understanding of the wind farm zone and identification of objects in the designated wind farm zones and to obtain geophysical information on these locations, which is suitable for the preparation of geotechnical investigations and suitable to progress the design and installation requirements for offshore wind farms, including, but not limited to foundations and infield cables.

This soil information will be made available to all potential bidders for offshore wind farms in the Netherlands.

Deadline for submission of tenders is 16 May 2017.

Of the three areas pinpointed for offshore wind development, the 1.4GW Borssele zone has already went through the tendering process, resulting in DONG Energy winning the tender for Borssele I & II sites, and the consortium comprising Eneco, Shell, Van Oord and DGE/ Mitsubishi being awarded the Borssele III & IV sites.

The Netherlands has six offshore wind sites in the pipeline at the two Hollandse Kust zones: four at Hollandse Kust Zuid, and two at Hollandse Kust Noord. Each of the sites at the wind farm zones can accommodate 350MW. 

The subsidy and permit tender for Hollandse Kust Zuid I and II (totalling 700MW) is planned to open in 2017, with the tender for the zones III and IV (700MW) following a year later. The Hollandse Kust Noord (700MW) subsidy and permit tender is scheduled for 2019.

For the Hollandse Kust Zuid geophysical soil investigation, RVO.nl awarded the contract to Fugro at the beginning of the last year. The contract was valued at EUR 1.5 million. A few months later, Fugro also won a contract for geotechnical site investigation at the Hollandse Kust Zuid zone.

Offshore WIND Staff