Dutch govt. to save €2 billion on wind farm subsidies

The Dutch government may spend 2 billion euros less than budgeted on subsidies for wind farms due to the fact that the cost of offshore wind farms dropped significantly over the past years, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday. Five wind farms need to be built to fulfill commitments made in the Energy Agreement. By 2023 offshore wind mills must produce 4,450 megawatts of electricity. When the Agreement was made in September 2013, the State budgeted a maximum of 18 billion euros in subsidies for these wind farms. Last year Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs brought the subsidy amount down to 12 billion euros. But according to FD, that amount is still too high. Simone van Gendt, who works in Rabobank's exports and project finance markets department, told the newspaper that Kamp hasn't taken the low tender offer from Danish energy company Dong into account. Dong recently won the tender for a wind form off the coast of Borssele for a much lower amount than expected. While the Borssele location is different from the other planned parks in size and location, Van Gendt expects that the costs of other wind farms will also fall. "For the next Dutch projects with partially similar characteristics, Dong creates a certain expectation", she told the newspaper. According to FD, if there are five parks with similar circumstances, the Dutch State would only spend about 10 billion euros on subsidies.