Rentability and financing of wind power plants in Netherlands

An increasing risk for wind farms in the Netherlands is financing. The issue has risen due to a fall in price and volatility in electricity prices, which makes the long-term business models of these plants riskier. In contrary to other RES plants, wind energy plants require long-term investment, therefore solid business models are essential. This will mainly have an impact on offshore wind energy because they are also no longer eligible for subsidies but instead work through a separate tender-scheme.

Investors want to invest more and more in renewable energy, however, the ministry has cut subsidies for wind enormously. In the SDE++ 2020 round a mere 99 million out of 5 billion was set aside for wind energy projects. Only projects that can obtain enough funding at a very low cost can continue, especially the big players. Many projects do not get off the ground and we now see a clear oligipoly arising in the Dutch wind energy market. Local initiatives, like citizens' cooperatives for wind energy, do not have the funds to construct wind plants. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) is now examining how they can support such initiatives separately.

The coalition agreement of the government inaugurated in January 2022 has set out 38 billion euros for a climate- and transition fund. The agreement sets out a clear aim of investing more in renewable energy projects, amongst which is wind, but does not contain any very concrete plans of action.