Sun on the Slufter
Noordzeeboulevard 501
in Maasvlakte, Rotterdam

Sun on the Slufter

The Central Government Real Estate Agency, Port of Rotterdam Authority (HbR) and Rijkswaterstaat (RWS, the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) are preparing a tender for the development of a floating solar plant at the Slufter dredging spoil depot in the Maasvlakte industrial facility in Rotterdam. The future commercial operator will be granted a right of use to place photovoltaic panels in the depot. As soon as the Bid Book, containing further information on the location and the procedure, including the accompanying appendices, is completed, it will be made available on this website.

Last preparations
The preparation for the tender is nearly completed. Before the tender can start, the underlying arrangements between the Central Government Real Estate Agency, HbR and RWS need to be clear and agreed upon. Due to the double use of the Slufter (i.e. dredging spoil facility and floating solar plant) and the organizational and legal differences between the three organisations, this is taking more time than was expected. The extra time the cooperating partners now take to make a comprehensive set of agreements, will contribute to a smooth realisation and operation of the floating solar plant.

Location
The Slufter is a depot for contaminated sediment of about 250 hectares in the Maasvlakte. The location of the Slufter depot in the far west of the Netherlands makes it one of the sunniest places in the country. It is an ideal place for generating solar energy. According to estimates, it will be possible to make approximately 100 ha of surface water available for the construction of a floating solar plant, potentially yielding a capacity of approximately 140 MWp. This would generate enough green electricity to power approximately 50,000 households, making it by far the largest floating solar plant in the Netherlands.

Project
The ‘Zon op de Slufter’ (Sun on the Slufter) project stems from HbR’s and RWS’s desire to generate solar energy on the surface of the water in the Slufter without disrupting its primary purpose (the storage of dredging spoil). HbR and RWS signed a letter of intent in October 2016 in which they announced their intention to generate solar energy in the Slufter depot. In the letter of intent, they agreed to develop a pilot so as to gain experience in operating floating photovoltaic panels in the Slufter depot. The experience gained in this pilot so far indicates that there are sufficient reasons to scale up the ‘Zon op de Slufter’ project.

The ‘Zon op de Slufter’ project is therefore part of the pilot programme ‘Renewable energy on State-owned (RWS) land’ undertaken by RVB, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and RWS. The aim of this programme is to learn how State-owned land can best be used to generate renewable energy.

Market Consultation 2019
In May 2019, RVB, HbR and RWS carried out a market consultation in preparation for the tender procedure of the ‘Zon op de Slufter’ project. The market consultation for the ‘Zon op de Slufter’ project consisted of three parts: a plenary session which took place on 8 May 2019, written questions and a number of in-depth discussions. The report was published on 15 July 2019.

More information
Using the button ‘Download more information’, you can download the market consultation document, the report of the market consultation and the sheets of the presentations to the plenary session on 8 May 2019.