Vattenfall and Statoil reveal Dutch offshore wind power play

Vattenfall has decided to join the tender as part of its commitment to the green transition of Northern Europe, and sees it as an important step to become fossil free within one generation, the Swedish company said.

“As an energy company with a strong presence in the Dutch market and with a firm view on the developments in the Dutch power market, we are very committed to take a leading role in the green transformation of the Dutch economy. Hollandse Kust Zuid would be an important milestone,” said Magnus Hall, CEO at Vattenfall.

The North Sea, and in particular the Hollandse Kust (zuid), has good wind conditions and there are significant strategies to Vattenfall’s nearby Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm, the company said, emphasizing that the Dutch tender fits well with the company’s North Sea wind farm pipeline and can thus be easily incorporated in the current procurement and execution strategy.

“We believe that our proposal represents a very solid all-round proposition to meet the Dutch government’s needs. The country’s strong commitment to renewable energy creates a stable regulatory framework. Along with support in terms of providing the substation and grid connection these are very important parts of Vattenfall’s decision to bid,” said Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfalls Business Area Wind.

“Through close cooperation with our suppliers Vattenfall has made tremendous progress in bringing down costs of offshore wind over the last few years. We will continue to bring costs even further down, which gives us the confidence that we can build and run this windfarm profitably even without subsidies.”

Statoil

Statoil, the company behind the world’s first operational floating wind farm, has submitted a zero-subsidy bid at the Dutch offshore wind tender for Hollandse Kust Zuid I & II project in the North Sea. This is the first non-subsidy tender for offshore wind projects in the world, Statoil pointed out, further adding that the grid connection is not part of the scope of the application and will be provided by the Dutch grid operator TenneT.

“An important element in our application is to apply future-fit operations & maintenance concepts suitable for the Hollandse Kust area. Building on our extensive offshore experience and more than 40 years as one of the largest energy providers in Europe, we believe we have a robust and efficient project proposal that is the basis for our application,” said Irene Rummelhoff, Executive vice president for New Energy Solutions in Statoil.

“The project proposal will be firmed up in the months to come and we expect to be able, through cooperation with selected suppliers, to improve it even further. We see the Dutch energy market providing sustainable long-term value and we want to expand our position in this market,”Rummelhoff said.

The offshore wind development, and hence this bid, fall under Statoil’s ambition to invest around EUR 10 billion in profitable renewable and low carbon projects in the coming years, as part of the company’s development from a focused oil and gas company to a broad energy major.

“Getting access to attractive renewable projects like Hollandse Kust Zuid is part of the Statoil’s strategy to gradually complement the oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy projects. We are encouraged to see that increased competition, improved and more cost-efficient technologies, close collaboration with suppliers and increased deployment have significantly reduced the cost of offshore wind over the last year,” Irene Rummelhoff said.

The award of rights for the Hollandse Kust Zuid I & II sites is expected to take place in March 2018.

Source:OffshoreWIND.biz, image: Vattenfall