BlackRock considers investment in Dutch offshore wind farm: FD

The world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock is considering investing in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday.

BlackRock, has already invested $6bn in sustainable energy projects and an investment of over €1bn in a Dutch project is now being looked at, Freek Spoorenberg, head of the company’s sustainable energy arm, told the paper in an interview.

Although BlackRock is unwilling to give details, the FD says the project is likely to be the planned wind farm off the Zeeland coast, near Borssele.

BlackRock, which has a large amount of Dutch pension fund money under management, says wind and solar farms are winning in popularity as reliable, alternative investments.

Last month, the government announced that CrossWind, a consortium made up of Shell and Eneco, is going to build and operate the third un-subsidised wind farm in the Dutch area of the North Sea.

The wind farm will have capacity of over 750 MW and means offshore wind power will provide 16% of the Netherlands’ electricity needs by 2023.

In 2016, Blauwwind (also made up of Shell and Eneco) was awarded the permit to build and operate two sites in the Borssele wind farm zone.