No applications for construction of new wind farm in the North Sea

Renewable energy and climate change

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has not received any applications for construction and operation of a new wind farm in the North Sea, at Nederwiek Site I-A. Due to rising costs and less demand for electricity than previously expected, development of offshore wind energy is under pressure. The Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth (KGG) already anticipated that there might not be any applications. There will be a new tender round in 2026, in which the measures of an action plan will be included.

No surprise

In recent years, the market for offshore wind energy has grown rapidly. Thanks to innovation and scaling up, offshore wind farms were built without subsidy since 2018. Since then, the market for offshore wind energy has changed rapidly and significantly. Costs for wind farm developers have risen. The transition to sustainability in Dutch industry, among others, is progressing slower than expected. This has made it more difficult for wind farm developers to secure long-term power purchase contracts before the construction of a wind farm starts. This has reduced their willingness to invest.

This is also reflected in other European countries, such as Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Belgium. There, too, no applications were received for permits, or permit rounds were postponed due to limited interest from the market. For the Nederwiek I-A (NW I-A) site, the tender criteria had already been adjusted to current market conditions to make this permit round more attractive.

Offshore Wind Energy Action Plan

The Ministry anticipated that there might not be any applications for the NW I-A site. That is why the Minister of Climate Policy and Green Growth presented the Offshore Wind Energy Action Plan on 16 September 2025. This contains measures to financially support construction of new wind farms. The plan also provides solutions to further stimulate demand for offshore wind energy.

The Government is taking action to prevent development of offshore wind farms from coming to a standstill next year:

In 2026, the Government wants to issue permits for 2 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind farm capacity by means of a tender with subsidy. €948 million has already been reserved for this from the Climate Fund. The Minister will announce which wind sites this applies to, what the schedule of the tender is and the final maximum subsidy amount by end January 2026 at the latest.
The Ministry is also working on a new form of financial support for wind energy. In this case, the Government enters into contracts with companies that guarantee a minimum price for their generated electricity. The Government then pays the difference with this agreed price to the company in the event of low market prices. In the event of high electricity prices, the extra profit goes to the Government.

These steps will help us become more energy independent from other countries and improve the competitiveness of our industry. Offshore wind energy provides clean energy that further reduces CO₂ emissions.