‘Breeveertien II’ is the largest consented wind farm in the Netherlands and, once constructed, will make a major contribution to the Dutch national target of 6,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2020. It will consist of up to 97 wind turbines with a total potential energy capacity of around 350MW (megawatts). It is located in the North Sea, 60 kilometres off the coast of Ilmuiden. The focus will now be on the final phase of the development process, securing financial support from the Dutch government through its renewables support mechanism (‘SDE’).
Airtricity was recently granted exclusive rights by The Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms at four locations in Scottish territorial waters. The locations are Beatrice, Bell Rock, Islay and Kintyre. It is also seeking to play a significant role in The Crown Estate’s plans for a third round of offshore wind farm developments in zones off the coast of the UK.
Airtricity has already started construction work related to the development in the outer Thames Estuary of Greater Gabbard, a joint venture with RWE Innogy which, on completion, is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 500MW. It also has consent to develop offshore wind farms at Arklow (Republic of Ireland) and Butendiek (Germany) and continues to pursue other options for offshore wind farm development in northern Europe.
Paul Dowling, chief executive of Airtricity said: “This is a major achievement for SSE and takes the total offshore wind farm capacity consented to us by the Dutch government to over 600MW. The Dutch market is an important new area for SSE’s renewable development team and the ‘West Rijn’ and ‘Breeveertien II’ sites will give us the potential to become the leading offshore wind developer in The Netherlands.”
