The Dutch Government will soon invite applications for permits for two new offshore wind farms, totalling 1400MW, in the North Sea.
The wind farms lots 6 and 7, within the Hollandse Kust (west) wind energy area, are located 53 km off the Dutch coast and are for projects up to 700MW each.
The regulations with details about the procedure were published in the Government Gazette on 9 March.
The tenders are open from 14 April to 12 May 2022.
Applications can be made via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).
After the closing of the tenders, RVO has 13 weeks to assess the received applications with an extension of 13 weeks.
The winners are expected to be announced in October 2022.
The successful applications will commission wind farms is the 2025-2026 period.
The construction of the wind farms will be carried out without subsidy.
In a new development to proceedings, developers can make a financial offer, made possible by an amendment to the Offshore Wind Energy Act, in which the options for granting permits for the development of wind farms without subsidy have been expanded.
In previous tenders, there was only a comparative test on a submitted application.
The two tenders also include additional criteria that is taken into account in the assessment.
For the permit of lot 6, the criteria is in relation to innovations in the field of ecology and for lot 7 the criteria is in relation to innovation in the field of system integration.
The aim of these new criteria is to encourage the market to innovate.
As with previous tenders, the implementation of the regulations was drawn up in consultation with the wind sector and market parties.