AMSTERDAM -A joint venture of Shell and Dutch energy company Eneco has won the right to build an offshore wind farm with a capacity of 756 megawatts (MW) in the North Sea, the Dutch government said on Thursday.
The wind farm, located around 50 kilometres (31 miles) west off the Dutch coast, is expected to be operational in 2026.
The 54 turbines in the offshore windfarm should supply around 3% of the total electricity demand of the Netherlands by 2026, the government said, enough to power around a million households.
Shell and Eneco will receive no subsidies for building the site and won the tender with plans that would limit its impact on nature above and below sea level, the government said.
The Netherlands aims to increase its offshore wind capacity to 21 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, as part of its bid to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 55% relative to 1990 levels by that time.
So far, a total capacity of 2.5 GW is operational, while a number of wind farms comparable in size to the one Shell and Eneco will build are under construction.
Last month, German energy company RWE was granted the right to build another 750 MW wind farm in the Dutch part of the North Sea, which should also come online in 2026.