The experiences with the first Dutch off shore wind farm are intended to serve new projects. In the mean time, the second Dutch wind farm (Q7) is already in construction. The Egmond aan Zee wind farm is a joint venture of Shell and Dutch utility Nuon. An investment of some 200 million € was required. 30 Vestas Turbines of 3 Megawatt are already producing power since October 2006. According to the press release, in the first quarter of this year already 111 million kilowatt-hours have been produced.

According to Dutch Economy Minister Maria van der Hoeven, off shore wind is required to meet the government’s ambitious plans regarding renewable energy (a target share of 20% in 2020). “The research programme will contribute to innovations”, she said during the opening ceremony. Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Shell, said: “We have the task to prove that off shore wind energy is a profitable business. That will invoke new investments.”

The monitoring programme already provided the first results, concerning ecological topics.

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