By Anders Lorenzen

With its relatively small coastline, the Netherlands is making the most of its available offshore space.

The Danish clean energy giant, Orsted, has announced they have finished the construction of the Netherlands largest offshore wind farm. 

Up until now the biggest offshore wind farm in the country was the 600 megawatt (MW) Gemini installation.

Clean energy for one million households

But with the completion of the 752 MW Borssele wind farm, it becomes not only the largest in Holland but the second largest in the world – though the latter accolade is set to be shortlived. The wind farm located 22 kilometres off the Dutch coast consists of 94, 8MW Siemens wind turbines, and will deliver enough electricity equivalent to around one million Dutch households.

Back in 2016, Orsted secured the rights to construct the wind farm in an auction which at the time was considered record low subsidy for the electricity delivered.

More projects in the pipeline

Since this project, the Dutch government has granted the rights to construct wind farms with a total capacity 2800 MW at four other North Sea sites – with the last three auctions offering no subsidies. In addition, the government aims to grant another set of permits for another 6100 MW of wind power over the next five years via another four tenders.

The Dutch government has a target to get 40% of all their electricity from wind power by 2030, with solar panels to deliver another 30%. Last year energy from renewable sources made almost 9% of all energy used in the Netherlands  – this is up from 7.4 in 2018.

In recent years, the Netherlands has come under fire from activists for not doing enough to tackle climate change. In 2019 the Dutch Supreme Court upheld a landmark ruling brought by climate change activists demanding climate action. The top court argued that the government has a duty to protect its citizens from climate change and that they must do much more to reduce emissions.