Shell is selling every solar farm it owns in the Netherlands. The five sites, plus a combined wind and solar park at Pottendijk near Emmen, are going to the French oil company TotalEnergies.
The deal covers all of Shell’s wind and solar projects on land across Europe (its offshore windfarms are not included) and the company will not disclose what it is being paid.
The Dutch sites can produce up to 254 megawatts between them, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. They are at Moerdijk, Heerenveen, Emmen, and Sas van Gent and Koegorspolder near Terneuzen.
Some were built on land Shell had already used for oil and gas, and the company used them as proof it was changing. The Emmen farm stands on the site of an old gas treatment plant, part of a project Shell said could be an example for the rest of the country.
The sale needs approval from regulators and is expected to be completed at the end of 2026.
Retreating from transition
Wael Sawan, Shell’s chief executive, has shifted spending back towards oil and gas and away from low-carbon projects. TotalEnergies has moved the other way, buying renewable assets across Europe.
The Hague district court ordered Shell in 2021 to cut its emissions by 45% by 2030. The company dropped Royal Dutch from its name and moved its headquarters to London the following year, and won its appeal in November 2024.
Milieudefensie has taken that case to the Supreme Court and launched a second action last year over the company’s 700 oil and gas projects that are still in development.
Shell is not leaving Dutch renewable energy altogether. It keeps its stakes in North Sea wind farms, its Holland Hydrogen 1 plant at Rotterdam and its carbon capture work.
