Shell and Eneco Jointly Submit Hollandse Kust (noord) Bid

Shell and Eneco have jointly submitted a bid in a zero-subsidy round of the tender to develop the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.

The two companies are, through their CrossWind joint venture, competing with several other bidders including Ørsted, to develop a wind farm with a capacity of up to 760 MW.

Both Shell and Eneco have issued guarantees to CrossWind for investments in the construction and operation of Hollandse Kust (noord).

Together with the CrossWind consortium, the companies plan to have Hollandse Kust (noord) operational in 2023 with an estimated installed capacity of 759 MW, generating an estimated 3.3 TWh per year. The wind farm will be located approximately 18.5 kilometres off the Dutch coast near the town of Egmond aan Zee.

To tackle intermittency in electricity generation, CrossWind plans to invest in various innovations that can be implemented at full-scale in future wind farms to help balance the electricity network and keep societal costs low.

”With CrossWind, we want to work towards the realisation of the first offshore wind farm with innovations with regards to system integration,” said Kees-Jan Rameau, Chief Strategic Growth Officer at Eneco.

”In addition to the energy the wind farm can generate, the park offers many opportunities to (further) develop innovative techniques that can be of added value in accelerating the energy transition. By combining the knowledge and expertise of Shell and Eneco, we can make full use of this potential. Moreover, this wind farm contributes to Eneco’s ambition to help every household and company in the Netherlands to switch to a sustainable and clean energy supply.”

The zero-subsidy round of the tender closed on 30 April. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) will announce the winner of the tender by the end of July at the latest.

Shell Nederland is working together with partners to create a green hydrogen hub in the port of Rotterdam. Shell aims to produce green hydrogen on the Tweede Maasvlakte using electricity from wind power.

This wind power will preferably come from the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm.

“The energy transition calls for guts, boldness, and action,” said Marjan van Loon, President-Director of Shell Nederland.

“We are proud that together with our partner Eneco we are participating in the tender to build Hollandse Kust (noord). Through the connection of this wind farm to our possible future green hydrogen plant in the Port of Rotterdam, we want to develop a new value chain together with our partners and governments – from wind to hydrogen – to create a green hydrogen hub. We regard this as a stepping stone for the recently announced NortH2-project. These projects fit well with our aspirations to provide more and cleaner energy to our customers, at home, on the go and at work.”

The hydrogen plant in the Port of Rotterdam will have a capacity of around 200 MW. The final investment decision for the hydrogen plant has not been taken yet.

Shell intends to start operations by 2023 to produce about 50,000 – 60,000 kilograms of hydrogen per day. The green hydrogen produced will initially be used at the Shell refinery in Pernis to decarbonise the production of fuels.