Energy giant Shell has taken over full control over the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, buying out Vattenfall from the NoordzeeWind joint venture.

Offshore wind farm Egmond aan Zee started operating in 2007, supplying electricity to more than 100,000 Dutch households. The wind farm is seen as the country's first offshore wind farm.

With its 36 turbines, the offshore wind farm was built by the NoordzeeWind joint venture between Shell and Vattenfall, created in 2001.

Construction of the wind farm started in 2006 and the farm was commissioned on April 18, 2007.

Hessel de Jong, general director of offshore wind Europe at Shell: “Offshore wind plays an important role in the energy transition. We have already learned a lot from the construction of this first Dutch wind farm at sea, and I am delighted that we will continue to contribute to the energy transition in this way. And with the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm, we can also gain valuable experience for operating an offshore wind farm in a dynamic energy market."

Kasper Simonsen, Head of Asset Management, ”Vattenfall wants to make fossil-free living possible within a generation. To achieve that goal, substantial investments are being made in wind, solar, and storage, with which we are making the supply of energy ever more sustainable. We can apply the lessons learned from the first Dutch offshore wind farm to the construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid and other future offshore wind farms. The sale enables Vattenfall to focus even more on the development of our new projects.”

Vattenfall's Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm is the first subsidy-free offshore wind farm in the world. It will be located between 18 and 36 kilometers off the Dutch coast, between The Hague and Zandvoort.

Construction will start in 2021. In 2023, when the wind farm is operational, the 140 wind turbines will produce more than 6 TWh of electricity per year.

As part of its CrossWind joint venture with Enerco, Shell will build a subsidy-free offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, too.

CrossWind last year won the tender for the subsidy-free offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (Noord). The consortium plans to have Hollandse Kust (Noord) operational in 2023 with an installed capacity of 759 MW, generating at least 3.3 TWh per year. 

 

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