The licence for the development of offshore wind farms is to be extended to 2020 to give licencees more time to develop their plans, junior infrastructure and environment minister Joop Atsma announced on Tuesday.

The licences, introduced in 2009, were due to end in 2012. Nine private companies are currently developing wind farms to be built around the Netherlands’ coast.
Extending the lifetime of the licences required negotiations with the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where authorities are worried about the effect of offshore wind farms on shipping, reports nu.nl. Agreement was eventually reached on adjustments to shipping routes and the relocation of one of the developments.
The Dutch government wants to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind farms by 2020.
The Netherlands currently has two wind farms, off the coast at Egmond aan Zee and IJmuiden, which generate 228mw of electricity.