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The Dutch government has confirmed that no applications were submitted for the latest offshore wind tender for the 1 GW Nederwiek I-A site in the North Sea. The tender closed on 30 October without bids, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) said in a press release issued the same day.
In a letter to Parliament , Dutch Minister for Climate and Green Growth, Sophie Hermans wrote: “Today the tender for the Nederwiek I-A wind site has closed. No applications have been submitted. This confirms that we have entered a market situation in which government support is crucial to prevent offshore wind development from stalling.”
RVO opened the tender on 16 October and, following the outcome after the tender closed, said that for the Nederwiek I-A site, the tender criteria had already been adjusted to the current market conditions to make this permit round more attractive.
As reported by offshoreWIND.biz on 16 October, the permit to build the 1 GW project was to be awarded through a comparative assessment with a financial bid, with additional criteria also applied to stimulate innovation in ecology, circularity, and system integration.
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In her letter to Parliament on 30 October, the minister said that the market has changed significantly in recent years. Whereas offshore wind farms could be built without subsidies since 2018 and some developers were even willing to pay for permits, “ European market conditions have now changed considerably”, Hermans noted. Developers face rising costs and slower-than-expected industrial electrification, which makes it harder to secure long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and has reduced their willingness to invest.
RVO also said that rising costs, challenging contract conditions and reduced electricity demand have made offshore wind less attractive for developers. The agency pointed out that other European tenders, including in Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Belgium, have faced similar difficulties or postponements.