The Dutch economics ministry is set to announce the winners of its latest offshore wind zero subsidy tender.
The ministry will make the result of the auction for the 750MW Hollandse Kust North zone public on Wednesday after the close of the Dutch stock exchange, Ruud de Bruijne, project manager offshore wind energy at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), said in a social media post.
The tender for the area had closed on April 30, after which the government had 13 weeks to vet submissions.
Global offshore wind pacesetter Orsted had confirmed it took part in the auction, as did a consortium of oil major Shell and Dutch utility Eneco, while Swedish utility Vattenfall dropped out of the race amid uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Vattenfall is developing the 1.5GW nearby Hollandse Kust South 1-4 areas that it had won in earlier zero-subsidy auctions.
Massive write-downs of coal-fired and wind power assets due to strained market conditions for fossil generation and rock-bottom Nordic power prices have pushed Vatenfall into a second quarter loss, the utility made public later.
Shell and Mitsubishi-owned Eneco have said that they plan to create a hydrogen hub in the port of Rotterdam with an electrolyser capacity of around 200MW, and would like to use power from Hollandse Kust North for the project.
