The Netherlands

Introduction

In 2025, offshore wind capacity remained stable at 4.7 GW in the Netherlands and the onshore wind grew marginally from 6955 MW to 7035 MW. However, the current share of 29% of wind in the national electricity generation is expected to increase in the coming years as 5.5 GW offshore wind farms are under construction. By 2032, 21 GW should be operational in the Dutch part of the North Sea. The goal is to have approximately 30-40 GW of wind capacity in the North Sea by 2040. Onshore there are 1.9 GW wind projects in various stages of development. In the near future, 191 MW is to be decommissioned which will probably result in a net reduction of onshore wind in 2026.

Compared to 2024, the granted RD&D budget was considerably lower in 2025 at 8.5 million euro. The main reason is that in 2025 only somewhat smaller subsidy schemes were open for application. The expectation is that this amount will increase again in 2026 due to the opening of larger subsidy schemes.

Market Development

Targets and Policy

Compared to last year the policy for onshore wind in the Netherland has not changed. Onshore renewables have to contribute to the 55% CO₂ reduction target in 2030 compared to 1990 by generating 35 TWh per year. Solar PV and wind contribute the most.

The Netherlands is divided in 30 regions and every region has to develop and implement a plan for solar PV, wind or a mix of renewable energy sources. Different interests among the stakeholders keep playing an important role in the realization of the renewables and especially wind. A strong collaboration between stakeholders is needed. In the near future, onshore wind can grow from 7 to 8+ GW, however the growth of onshore wind will be challenging.

Up to and including 2024, the tenders for the comparative assessment for offshore wind proceeded well. Initially, 4 GW was to be tendered in 2025, but this was ultimately reduced to the 1 GW Nederwiek. However, this tender was unsuccessful. The previous cabinet Schoof therefore made 4 billion euros in subsidies available for 2 GW. However, with this amount, only 1 GW was feasible. The new Jetten cabinet intends to tender 2 GW in 2026 with an 8 billion euro SDE subsidy obligation. From 2027, the Contract for Difference adjusted for inflation will become the support instrument for offshore wind.

The goal is to have approximately 30-40 GW of wind capacity in the North Sea by 2040, which represents a significant increase from the 21 GW planned for 2032. Original plans envisioned 50 GW, but due to increased costs and a lagging transition to electricity in industry, this has been adjusted downwards.

Progress and Operational Details

Onshore deployment progress (ref 5.). At the end of December 2025, there were 2,547 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 7,054 MW. This represents a net increase of 9 wind turbines, or 96 MW, compared to December 2024. This is slightly lower than in 2024 and, with the exception of 2017, the lowest annual net increase in capacity in the Netherlands in the last 10 years. The current installed capacity has an expected annual generation of 21.5 TWh, an increase of 0.3 TWh compared to the end of 2024.

Offshore deployment progress. The Netherlands currently has approximately 4.7 GW of operational capacity from offshore wind. This is distributed across 10 active wind farms in the Dutch North Sea. About 5.5 GW is under construction. HKW VI and VII will be operational in 2027 adding 1.52 GW. In 2029, IJver Alpha and Beta will be operational adding two times 2 GW. Thus, in 2029 an installed capacity of about 10 GW is expected. The planning and permit procedure for the remaining 11 GW until 2032 is underway. For the 40 GW goal in 2040, the roadmap still has to be worked out.

Matters Affecting Growth and Work to Remove Barriers

For onshore wind the uncertainty regarding the scheduled entry into force and the implementation of the national environmental standards is leading to delays and lack of clarity concerning the options for wind farms that do not yet have an irrevocable permit. Further negative electricity prices, decision-making at municipal level and grid congestion have a strong influence on the development of onshore wind projects. More and more turbines are reaching the end of their lifespan, making agreements on dismantling, reuse, and circular dismantling increasingly important. Due to the decommissioning there might be a small increase or decrease in wind power.

The realization of the Dutch offshore wind goals faces many challenges. Ecology is the biggest bottleneck. The European Birds Directive, in particular, is quite strict. Currently, models are primarily used to determine the potential for offshore wind. Due to a lack of data, these models assume the worst. With more data, the actual impact would be known, and perhaps more offshore wind is possible. Other issues are net congestion, the electrification of the industry which is lagging behind and the landing of electricity through the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site.

RD&D Activities

National RD&D Priorities and Budget

In the Netherlands the MOOI, EKOO and DEI+ are currently the main innovation subsidy instruments with respect to renewable electricity. For MOOI and EKOO innovations resulting in the improvement of the business case are eligible for subsidy. Moreover, projects for integration into the energy system and spatial ecological and societal innovations can be supported by MOOI or EKOO subsidy. The MOOI and EKOO cover the TRL range from 4 to roughly 7.

The DEI+ subsidy is meant for the higher TRL 7/8 demonstration and pilot projects in real life conditions. The focus is on innovations resulting in CO₂ reduction compared to regular solutions. Promotion of energy from renewable sources like wind is one of the eligible theme's.

Budget spent on wind in 2025:

• EKOO: 2.2 million euro
• DEI+: 5.3 million euro
• CETP: 1.0 million euro

National Research Initiatives and Results

Heerema Marine Contractors develops the Modular Spreader Bar (MSB). The MSB is a lifting tool for very heavy loads like offshore high voltage substations and jacket foundations. Instead of producing two new spreader bars (lengths up to 60 m) for each lifting job the two MSBs can be used repeatedly, thus saving two times 34 ton steel per lifting job. Demonstrations are foreseen in 2026 in the Hornsea offshore wind park.

The other project awarded in the DEI+ is the SIMPLECS project, which stands for: 'Silent Installation of MonoPiLEs in prevailing Clay and Sand soils'. GBM Works (GBM® - We let water do the work) develops the Vibrojet technique which fluidizes the soil at the inside of a monopile and thus reduces the resistance when vibrating a monopile into the seabed. The SIMPLECS process develops the Vibrojet technology further for dense sand and clay layers in the seabed. The Vibrojet technology is much more silent than the hammer technology which is favorable for the porpoises. The installation of monopile foundations using Vibrojet® for Ecowende in Q1 2026 was a great success.

Frequensea (Vibrant removal – We safely remove subsea infrastructure with minimum environmental impact): Several thousands of km of cables and piping in the North Sea have to be decommissioned at the end of their lifetime. The current technology requires heavy ships, disturbs the seabed considerably and damages the cable. Enersea develops together with Deltares innovative tooling for easy retrieval of subsea cables and piping. Shakers around the cable loosen the seabed thus reducing the necessary force to pull the cable out of the seabed.

Turbine Bat Trace. Bats are protected species under the EU Habitats Directive. For that reason, new wind farms must implement measures to limit mortality. Dopplium (Dopplium - Radar Technology Solutions) develops the BatGuardian, a compact radar-based system that can detect bats in real time near wind turbines. With timely bat detection, unnecessary wind turbine curtailment can be prevented and thus preventing income loss.

Tree Composites (TREE COMPOSITES – INNOVATIVE COMPOSITE JOINTS FOR OFFSHORE STRUCTURES) has developed the wrapped composite joint. Instead of welding steel tubular joints, these joints are wrapped in composite. This avoids complex and expensive welding. Also, the fatigue lifetime is very much longer than the welded joint and therefore reduces the amount of steel considerably. The jacket foundation with wrapped composite joints can therefore be an attractive alternative for monopiles or welded jacket foundations.

The high susceptibility to failure of gearboxes in wind turbines leads to significant downtime and yield losses. Sensing 360 (Home - Sensing360) develops a system for real time monitoring of gear boxes in wind turbines. The result is a system that consists of innovative fiber optic sensors that can measure both forces and vibrations in gearbox stages, combined with data analysis software.

Test Facilities and Demonstration Projects

At the end of the life-time of an offshore wind park the whole park has to be decommissioned as if no wind park has been present. Usually, the monopile is cut off a few meters below the seabed. The HyPE-ST 1.2 project from RWE, Deltares and others demonstrated the hydraulic extraction method for monopiles. By applying hydraulic water pressure inside the monopile, the complete monopile comes out of the seabed and leaving the seabed rather undisturbed.

Collaborative Research

Dutch companies and research institutes are involved in 20 IEA TCP wind tasks:

• 43, Wind energy digitalization
• 44, Wind farm flow control
• 45, Recycling wind turbine blades
• 46, Blade erosion
• 47, Turbinia
• 48, Airborne wind energy
• 49, Integrated design of floating wind arrays (IDEA)
• 50, Hybrid
• 51, Forecasting for the weather driven energy systems
• 52, Large scale deployment of wind lidar
• 53, The cost and value of wind energy
• 55, Refwind
• 56, OC7, Floating wind energy
• 57, JAM, Joint assessment of models
• 58, Offshore energy hubs
• 60, Harmonised LCA for Wind Power (CYCLEWIND)
• 61, Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) Hydrogen Integration
• 62, Social Science to Support Wind Energy Planning and Participation
• 64, RESONATE (Research on Emissions, SOund, Noise, Acoustics, Transmission & community Experiences)
• 65, Wind SCOUT (Strategy, Collaboration & Outreach on Urgent Topics of Wind Energy Research)

Whiffle and TNO are participating in the European funded project SswiFT Wind (Scanning & Simulating Flow with Floating Lidar Technologies). This project aims to combine a profiling LiDAR and a scanning LiDAR into one floating measurement device and to translate the resulting data into the reconstruction of 3D wind fields, allowing optimized wind farm design, optimal wind farm operation in order to reduce wake effects and maintenance costs.

Impact of Wind Energy

Environmental Impact

In 2025, wind energy generated 29% of the total electricity demand in the Netherlands which is 1% less than in 2024. This decrease is because of an increase in electricity demand and constant wind power generation. The share of wind energy is expected to increase in the coming years because 5.5 GW offshore wind farms are under construction. All renewables together generated 57% of the electricity demand in 2025 which is an increase of 2% compared to 2024. This is due to solar PV.

As the dependency upon wind energy and especially offshore wind grows in the Netherlands, cyber security becomes a very important issue to cope with. A study by MARIN concerning Maritime Cyber Vulnerabilities (ref. 1) shows that many vulnerabilities in the maritime sector can indirectly create risks for offshore wind infrastructure. Large vessels pose physical risks, and at the same time geopolitical instability, hybrid threats and disruptions in global shipping routes heighten uncertainty for maritime operations. Mitigation requires action at both the ship and coastal levels. Furthermore, offshore infrastructure is inherently vulnerable, therefore it should be explicitly acknowledged and integrated into planning and development of the offshore infrastructure.

A study by PWC into the Socio-economic effects of digital disruption in offshore energy (ref. 2) identified four digital disruption scenarios: data exposure, loss of control, operational downtime and power outage. The outage scenario showed economic impact between 5 and 8 billion euro and 1.6 to 3.3 Mt extra CO₂ emission. Also people, communities and industry are affected seriously by the outage. Bottlenecks in governance, coordination and capabilities have been identified and recommendations formulated like incident ownership, cyber security standards, alignment across stakeholders, intelligence sharing and investment in skilled workforce.

Economic Benefits and Industry Development

As already mentioned before, wind generates 29% of the electricity demand and is expected to grow the coming years. This contributes to energy independence, security and lower prices. These are very important benefits given the sensitivity of fossil energy supply to geopolitical conflicts.

By 2032, the offshore wind capacity is expected to grow from 4.7 GW now to about 21 GW. This will result in many job opportunities in the years to come. For operations and maintenance of the offshore wind farms, the direct employment will grow from about 400 FTE now to about 2200 FTE in 2032 (ref. 3). In this period, also temporary workforce is needed for the construction of offshore wind farms. This growth in employment must also be supplemented by new skilled workers, which is a significant challenge regarding the aging population.

Due to the strategic position of the Netherlands at the shallow North Sea the ports of Vlissingen, Rotterdam, IJmuiden, Den Helder and Eemshaven play a very important role in the installation of and maintenance of offshore wind farms in the North Sea, not only for the Dutch wind farms but also for other countries at the North Sea. A recent study by Haskoning (ref. 4) shows that the required growth in deployment volume creates a bottleneck at the ports. As turbines grow larger and heavier, the demand for high-load quays and large laydown areas is projected to exceed current supply by the end of the decade. Without timely intervention, port limitations could slow the pace of the rollout.

Dutch offshore wind farm construction and installation companies like Van Oord, Boskalis and Heerema Marine Contractors belong amongst the best in the world, operating worldwide.

The national TSO TenneT is responsible for development and construction of the export cables and offshore substation.

Besides the aforementioned companies, there are many maintenance companies, component factories and engineering and service-related companies located in the Netherlands. For instance, SIF is an important monopile manufacturer and Whiffle is specialized in precision weather forecasting.

Next Term

Net congestion is currently a serious problem, slowing down the electrification in the Netherlands unless obstacles are removed soon. Even now, homes and businesses in some parts of the country cannot be connected because there is no capacity on the grid. Currently, work is being done on the Crisis Act and that will lead to the first results after the summer of 2026.

Investing in the energy transition requires 18 billion per year for the current system to 42 to 59 billion euro per year until 2050 for further transition to climate neutral (TNO analysis). The government alone cannot raise the capital and private investors are reluctant because of the financial risks and uncertain financial returns. Investing in this kind of projects has to be made more attractive.

In conclusion, we can state that although the targets for offshore have been adjusted downwards, wind energy developments continue, albeit with significant challenges. The current cabinet, which has been in power since February 2026, considers greater energy independence important and gives this higher priority than the previous cabinet.

References

1. Maritime Cyber Vulnerabilities, MARIN.
2. Socio-economic effects of digital disruption in offshore energy, PWC
3. Identifying the Dutch Offshore Wind Workforce for 2035, Echt
4. Consequences of upscaling offshore wind for port infrastructure and logistics, Haskoning BV