Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn is due to buy electricity from oil major Shell and renewables developer Eneco’s 760MW Ecowende offshore wind farm.
It will buy enough power from the North Sea project to meet half of its electricity needs from 2027. However, the parties declined to confirm what percentage of the project’s output Albert Heijn would buy through the 15-year power purchase agreement.
Albert Heijn aims to have an emissions-free supply chain by 2050, and claims buying Dutch wind power since 2021 has made its shops, distribution centres and offices already “fully climate-neutral”.
Shell (60% owner of Ecowende) and Eneco (40%) secured the rights to build the project in the Netherlands’ zero-subsidy offshore wind tender in 2022.
The developers plan to implement a number of biodiversity-friendly measures at the Ecowende project, and will look to protect bats, birds, marine mammals and other marine life near the project.
Ecowende is due online by the end of 2026.