The large Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm has produced the first electricity, said the companies running the project on Monday.
Several megawatt-hours of electricity were delivered to the Dutch mainland via the electricity grid, which is operated by state-owned TenneT. Shell and Mitsubishi subsidiary Eneco lead the consortium responsible for the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, stated by the CrossWind consortium.
"In coming months production capacity will be constantly increased, so the wind park will eventually generate 3.3 TWh (terawatt-hours) a year," Eneco said in the statement.
Hollandse Kust Noord, located 18.5 km off the Dutch coast, is expected to have the capacity of 759 MW when it is completed by the end of this year.
Amazon will buy half of the energy generated by the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, according to a deal reached in 2021. Meanwhile, Shell plans to use electricity from the project to produce green hydrogen at a 200 MW plant currently being built in Rotterdam.
The Netherlands plans to add around 1 GW per year of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea as it looks to hit a target of 21 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. 1 GW capacity is enough to supply around 1 million households with energy.
