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Dutch Minister for Climate and Green Growth, Sophie Hermans, presented the North Sea Wind Energy Infrastructure Plan (WIN) on 16 July to Parliament and said that the 2040 offshore wind target of 50 GW will be lowered. The new plan and Climate and Energy Memorandum, expected to be released and signed in September, are planned to set the target at 30-40 GW. The Netherlands will still maintain its 21 GW offshore wind goal for the near term.
In a letter to Parliament , Minister Hermans said the 50 GW goal was ambitious and unrealistic, but also that this amount of offshore wind generation capacity was not necessary, based on the most recent insights into the expected demand for electricity in 2040.
“Furthermore, the hydrogen market is developing more slowly than expected. This also makes offshore hydrogen production less urgent. Therefore, it currently appears neither feasible nor necessary to have 50 GW of offshore wind energy production capacity by 2040, nor to build the necessary infrastructure”, Minister Hermans states in the letter.
The government found that a target of approximately 30 GW for 2040 was a robust and widely supported minimum scenario, while 40 GW is considered necessary in many of the future scenarios examined to meet the expected energy demand.
The Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap will specify the targeted installed capacity for 2040 and the years leading up to it after 2032.
According to the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, from an infrastructure feasibility perspective, a maximum of 4 GW of electrical infrastructure can be developed per year, although this will likely not be possible every year due to supply chain constraints. An exception of 5 GW will be made in 2026 due to the Nederwiek IB wind farm, whose tendering was postponed, and the site will be offered for development together with Nederwiek II and Nederwiek III.