The Netherlands

Airtricity has to date applied for full consent for two offshore wind farms in the Netherlands: West Rijn (280-300MW) and Breeveertien II (300-350MW).
 
As part of the ambition of Airtricity in The Netherlands, more opportunities for the development of offshore wind farms in the North Sea are investigated.

In February 2007, the new centre-left coalition Cabinet agreed on three leading figures on sustainability:

- an energy efficiency improvement of 2% a year
- a 20% share of renewables in the total energy consumption in 2020 
- 30% less greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 compared to 1990.

The Minister of Environment has acknowledged that (offshore) wind energy is very important for reaching these goals.

The main government tool to stimulate the production of renewable energy, the MEP scheme, was closed in 2006. For new renewable energy projects it will be replaced by the new SDE scheme (‘Stimulatie Duurzame Energie’). The SDE scheme will be based on a feed-in tariff, aimed at increasing certainty to investors and improving the cost effectiveness of renewable electricity support. The SDE budget and its allocation will be decided during Q4 2007.