Rob Jetten, Minister for Climate and Energy Policy, said, “Our objective is to turn the North Sea into our main source of green energy. This is a huge job. The process of building a wind farm and connecting it to the onshore power grid takes several years. We also need to take into account the impact of nitrogen emissions, the ecological effects as determined by environmental impact assessments and any capacity shortages on the power grid. So we are making haste to get the wind farms up and running as quickly as possible."
The investment needed to realise the additional offshore grid is around €16 billion. To ensure this work is completed on schedule, TenneT will contract out the production of platforms, cables and equipment before the final offshore grid permits are awarded.
Recently, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium agreed to build wind farms with a total installed capacity of 150 GW in the North Sea by 2050, with a target of 65 gigawatts by 2030. The Netherlands will account for 21 GW of this.
