AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands will postpone tenders for two offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) due to a lack of interest from potential bidders, the Dutch government said on Friday.
The tenders had originally been planned for September. The government said it would now only open a tender for one location in the North Sea with a capacity of 1 GW then.
The Dutch Climate ministry said in March that interest for the three sites it wanted to tender was very low, after energy firms Eneco and Orsted had said they saw no viable business case without subsidies.
The government said it was still looking into ways to reintroduce subsidies in its tenders for offshore wind farms, as prospective bidders are backing out of the current “zero subsidy” model.
Climate minister Sophie Hermans said detailed plans for the future tenders would be presented by the third quarter, after having missed her earlier announced mid-April deadline.
The Netherlands last year pushed back plans to increase offshore wind capacity from 4.7 GW to 21 GW to the end of 2032 instead of 2030, citing costs, supply chain difficulties and “challenges in timely decision-making”.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
