Shell Bids to Build Dutch Offshore Wind Farms

Royal Dutch Shell has teamed up with energy company Eneco and builder Van Oord in a bid to build two wind farms in the Dutch part of the North Sea, the companies said on Wednesday.

The tender for the wind farms, with total capacity of 750 megawatts (MW), is open until March 14 for bids that require no subsidies on electricity prices.

The Dutch were among the first to offer a 'zero subsidy' tender for wind power in 2017, with Sweden's Vattenfall winning the right to build a 700 MW wind farm without price support.

Vattenfall has said it would also bid in the latest tender, which is the fourth of five being held by the Dutch government in a push to create 3,500 MW of offshore wind power by 2023.

A Shell and Eneco consortium won the second of the tenders in 2016 for a subsidy of 0.0545 euros ($0.0615) per kilowatt hour, which was a very low price at the time.

The price to attract builders for offshore wind farms has continued to fall, as surging demand for wind energy, progress in technology and competition among turbine makers has reduced construction costs.

The Netherlands plans to add a further 7,000 MW in offshore wind capacity between 2024 and 2030, as it seeks to turn around a track record as one of the most polluting countries in Europe.

($1 = 0.8858 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)