Noordzeker and local energy cooperatives opt for offshore wind

March 15, 2024

For the first time, seven hundred Dutch energy cooperatives will have the opportunity to participate in a large-scale wind energy project in the North Sea. Our NoordzeeStroom (an initiative of Energie Samen and Windunie connected to 700 Dutch energy cooperatives) is joining as a partner in the Noordzeker partnership. Noordzeker (an initiative of pension fund ABP and pension investor APG) and wind farm developer SSE Renewables have the ambition to generate large-scale wind energy in the North Sea and are participating in the tender for the IJmuiden Ver wind area. Through this collaboration, the parties are taking an important step towards a Dutch offshore wind farm with local participation, in which the parties work on affordable wind energy for the Netherlands.

Energy from, for, and by the Netherlands
“As a pension fund with 3 million participants, we believe in the power of collectivity,”, says Harmen van Wijnen, chairman of the board of pension fund ABP. “We are ambitious to operate a large wind farm in the North Sea. This will allow us to provide a good pension and affordable and clean energy for our participants and the Netherlands. By allowing local energy cooperatives to participate, we ensure that Noordzeker will benefit not only our pension participants but also everyone in the Netherlands who wants to participate. Wind belongs to all of us, and everyone in the Netherlands should be able to reap the benefits”. 

About ONS 
Onze NoordzeeStroom (ONS) is an initiative of Energie Samen and Windunie. Energie Samen and Windunie are connected to the cooperative energy community in which some 700 energy cooperatives (with 120,000 members) work on the energy future of the Netherlands. In the cooperative model, the energy users are also (co-)owners of the energy generation. Wind energy from the North Sea can provide the citizens and companies of the Netherlands with certainty about the energy supply at a stable and affordable price in the coming decades.