The first electricity has been produced from the large Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, companies running the project said on Monday.
In a statement, the CrossWind consortium led by Shell and Mitsubishi subsidiary Eneco said it had delivered several megawatt-hours worth of electricity to the Dutch mainland via the electricity grid, operated by state-owned TenneT.
"In coming months production capacity will be constantly increased, so the wind park will eventually generate 3.3 TWh (terawatt-hours) a year," Eneco said in the statement.
Hollandse Kust Noord, located 18.5 kms (11.5 miles) off the Dutch coast, is expected to have capacity of 759 megawatts (MW) when it is completed by the end of this year.
Retail giant Amazon will buy half of the project's energy under a deal struck in 2021. Shell itself plans to use electricity from the project to make green hydrogen at a 200 MW plant under construction in Rotterdam.
The Netherlands plans to add around 1 gigawatt (GW) per year of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea as it looks to hit a target of 21 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. One gigawatt capacity is enough to supply around 1 million households with energy.
(Reuters - Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Emma Rumney)
