Toespraak van SG Maarten Camps bij het Wind op Zee Seminar

Toespraak | 14-12-2016

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today we talk about an important topic. Important for our future energy production. Important for combating climate change. Important for Dutch-Japanese cooperation.

Wind power offers opportunities for a more sustainable energy supply and for economic growth. It creates jobs in the off shore wind industry. And it has unlimited potential as a clean energy source.

We know that we have to change our energy production to more renewable sources, if we want to combat climate change. The Netherlands wants to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80 to 95% in 2050.

This will have an enormous impact on our daily life. On our energy consumption. And on our energy production.

And we have wind. In abundance. Wind at land and in particular wind at the North Sea.

Private companies have build a number of wind farms in the dutch part of the North Sea already, adding up to 1000 megawatt of power.

And currently the dutch government organises the development of the largest off shore wind farms in the world. In total we will create 3500 megawatt of offshore wind in the North Sea, by 2023. That is faster than many people realize, as we see many people being impatient about the transition towards a more CO2 neutral energy supply.

Only this week we have completed the second tender and bidding for 700 megawatt of offshore wind in the North Sea. This tender has been won by a consortium that includes dutch companies like Shell and Van Oord, but also the Japanese Mitshubishi Corporation. So it is an excellent illustration of Dutch-Japanese cooperation.

Various aspects have lead to a power park that is highly cost-effective. One of these aspects is the Dutch ‘tender’ system, where companies compete with each other for exploitation of the park, while the government provides them with the necessary sites, the permits, and the necessary information. Mr Andre de Boer from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency will tell you all about this tender system this afternoon.

3 years ago we expected costs for off shore wind to drop by 40% in the years until 2023. Now, already in 2016, we have achieved a cost reduction of 55%. So we are not only creating the largest off shore wind farms in the world, but also the cheapest ones.

And this is only the beginning, because we know that in the next decades we will continue to develop off shore wind in the North Sea. For this, we will cooperate with the other countries around the North Sea, from France to Sweden. There is a vision to build about 25000 wind mills in the North Sea until 2050. A group of companies and research institutes has presented this  plan this Spring.

It illustrates what we may expect if we follow the prediction of the European Commission, that by 2050 wind power will be the main source of electricity.

As you know, Japan’s offshore wind potential is large too, but there are challenges in terms of weather and marine geography. Suitable technologies must be developed for building and maintaining offshore wind turbines and the necessary port facilities.

We believe that our experience in wind power can be useful to Japan in overcoming these challenges. And given the already succesfull Dutch-Japanese cooperation in off shore wind in the North Sea, we can overcome these challenges together.

Today, dutch companies are here and we have this seminar to explore our cooperation. I hope many meetings will follow.

But I would like to invite you to a special meeting in the Netherlands. Almost 1 year from now we will host one of the world’s largest conferences on wind power in Amsterdam. The WindEurope Conference & Exhibition 2017 will be held on from 28-30 November 2017. It is a long time away, but I can warmly recommend it.

I look forward to building and strengthening our cooperation in order to harness this clean and renewable energy source: offshore wind.

I hope you have a productive seminar.