RVO, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, has launched the slimmed down 1GW Nederwiek 1-A offshore wind auction.
Developers have until a deadline of October 30 to apply for a permit for the site which is located about 95km from the west coast of Texel in the North Sea and covers an area of about 149.2 km 2.
It is understood that the winning bidder will be selected two to three months after the closing date.
The sale will be run in a comparative assessment with a financial bid format and carried out fully online.
Bidders will have to show a huge commitment to ecology and environment, which will account for 38% of the total points awarded. This includes recycling blades, research on the biomass accumulation for turbines and foundations as well as shutting down power from the plant if nearby birds are in danger.
In addition, only projects with monopile foundations will be considered, due to a lack of suitable research on other foundation types during the Environmental Impact Assessment.
The site did have an original planned capacity of 2GW but this was reduced to lessen the investment required by developers and the financial risks.
The wind farm is connected to a TenneT platform which has a direct current connection of 2 GW to a land station near Borsele.