The transport ministry has granted an Irish company a licence for the construction of an offshore wind park in the North Sea, some 90 kms from Rotterdam.

The licence allows Airtricity to place 72 turbines some 40 kms off the coast.
Airtricity can now apply for a government subsidy for the wind park, the transport ministry statement said.
‘This is a major achievement for SSE in particular and for the Dutch wind energy industry in general, being the first offshore wind farm to be consented in the Netherlands for almost seven years,’said Paul Dowling CEO of Airtricity in a statement.
‘This is the first in a number of projects which will give us the opportunity to become the leading offshore wind developer in The Netherlands.’
Faster procedures
In June last year the ministry published a handbook setting out how licences and subsides for offshore wind parks would be handled in the period up to 2010. The department said it expects more licences to be granted in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the government is working on a long-term strategy for wind turbines in the North Sea after 2010 as part of its national water management plan.
Once this is in place, licence and subsidy applications for wind parks in the North Sea will be coordinated so that the whole process will be faster and more predictable, the ministry statement says. There have been growing complaints about the time and uncertainty currently involved in realising wind power projects.
The Dutch government wants to 6,000MW of electricity to be generated from offshore wind power by 2020.
The country’s current two wind farms are a 100MW park off the coast at Egmond aan Zee and a 120MW park off the coast of IJmuiden.
Click here to read AIrtricity’s press release