Ocean Winds has submitted a bid to the Dutch government for the Hollandse Kust West (HKW) Site VI and as such the right to develop around 790 MW of offshore wind capacity.
Located 53 kilometres from the coast, the site for a future bottom-fixed offshore wind farm covers an area of approximately 88 square kilometres and is expected to generate more than 3.4 TWh of clean energy.
The Dutch government closed the bidding window for the HKW Site VI and Site VII on 12 May.
Under the rules of the tenders, to win the rights for Site VI, the bidders had to include ecological measures in their concept, whereas Site VII required investments and innovations which are beneficial for the Dutch energy system.
”With a tender focused on ecological criteria, we envision the HKW Site VI project to be a game changer, setting the new standard for integrating ecology into the design of future wind farms,” Grzegorz Gorski , Chief Operating Officer of Ocean Winds, said.
”Ocean Winds has drawn up an unprecedented ecological program consisting of numerous investments and innovations covering the design, construction and operational phases. By adopting a nature-inclusive approach to the development of the wind farm, our proposal will provide a positive contribution to the ecology in the North Sea with the maximum output on ecological knowledge. It will provide for an extensive monitoring program, collecting critical information in smart ways, addressing current knowledge gaps and ensuring knowledge and best practices are shared among the various stakeholders. The HKW Site VI project will support an accelerated learning process that will deliver the best ecological result for the North Sea .”
Ocean Winds participated in the Site VI tender through its bidding company GreenBreeze. The competition for the rights to build and operate the wind farm at the site includes RWE , Ørsted and TotalEnergies , Shell and Eneco , SSE Renewables and Brookfield , bp , and Vattenfall and BASF .
The Dutch government is expected to announce the winners of the two tenders this Autumn.
Ocean Winds, a joint venture between ENGIE and EDP Renewables, has a total portfolio of 11.2 GW of gross capacity, across seven countriesand twelve offshore wind projects. This includes the already operating the 950 MW Moray East in the UK, the 487 MW Seamade in Belgium, and the 25 MW WindFloat Atlantic floating wind farm offshore Portugal.