Eneco and Shell to build another wind farm in the North Sea

Energy groups Eneco and Shell are building a wind farm on the North Sea in the coming years, about 50 kilometers off the coast of IJmuiden. Both companies have won the tender for the Hollandse Kust (west) park, which is to run in four years.

The park has a capacity of 756 megawatts and consists of 54 wind turbines. The electricity produced by the park is enough to supply about a million households with electricity. That is 3 percent of the total electricity demand in our country.

Shell and Eneco realize the park without subsidies and indicate that nature is taken into account in the construction. For example, they place part of the turbines far apart, so that there is more space for birds, and use special heating techniques that have less impact on the underwater world.

The government wants more and more electricity to be generated by wind energy in the coming years. By the end of this decade, around 75 percent of the current power demand should be generated by offshore wind turbines. It is 21 gigawatts. Currently, that’s about 2.5 gigawatts.