The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) said it received no bids for the 1-gigawatt (GW) Nederwiek 1-A offshore wind site, after the tender closed on Thursday, reflecting growing pressure on the sector from rising costs and lower electricity demand.
The site, located about 95 kilometres off the west coast of Texel in the North Sea and covering roughly 149 square kilometres, had been offered under a slimmed-down format designed to attract developers with reduced financial risk.
In a statement, RVO said the result was not unexpected, noting that the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth (KGG) “already [took] into account that there might not be any applications.”
According to the agency, “The sustainability of Dutch industry, among others, is lagging behind. This has made it more difficult for wind farm developers to conclude long-term electricity contracts before the construction of a wind farm starts. This has reduced their willingness to invest.”
The agency attributed the lack of bids to rising construction and financing costs as well as weaker corporate demand for renewable electricity, factors that have put the development of new offshore wind projects under strain.
The tender process, conducted fully online, followed a comparative assessment model combined with a financial bid. Developers were required to demonstrate strong commitments to ecology and environmental protection, which accounted for 38% of the total score. Criteria included initiatives such as recycling turbine blades, researching biomass accumulation on foundations, and implementing measures to shut down turbines to protect nearby bird species.
In addition, only projects proposing monopile foundations were eligible due to limited environmental research on alternative foundation types during the site’s impact assessment.
The Nederwiek 1-A site was initially planned to have a capacity of 2GW, but was reduced to 1GW to lower investment costs and financial exposure for developers.
RVO said a new tender for the site is scheduled to take place in 2026.
