Nine North Seas countries target 260GW of offshore wind by 2050

The nine countries partnered together in the North Seas Energy Cooperation have announced this week a target to reach at least 260GW of offshore wind energy by 2050.

The North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) consists of nine countries – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden – alongside the European Commission.

Formed to support and facilitate the development of the offshore grid development and large renewable energy potential in the North Sea region, energy ministers from the nine NSEC countries announced on Monday a massive increase in their collective ambition to deploy offshore renewable energy.

Following the latest Ministerial Meeting held in Dublin, the NSEC ministers agreed to reach at least 260GW worth of offshore wind energy by 2050, a figure which would represent more than 85% of the European Union-wide ambition of reaching 300GW by 2050.

“Today’s commitment is a great example of the kind of regional cooperation that the Commission envisaged in our Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy,” said Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for energy.

It is impressive that the target agreed by nine NSEC countries constitutes more than 85% of the EU-wide ambition we outlined two years ago. The green energy transition has only become more urgent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The acceleration of renewables deployment is one of the three pillars of the REPowerEU Plan to end our dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

“Increasing renewable energy will not only help to improve the sustainability of our energy sector, it will improve our security of supply and the affordability of energy – two challenges that we are facing in the EU at the moment.”

On its way to achieving at least a target of 260GW by 2050, the NSEC also set out intermediate targets of at least 76GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 and 193GW by 2040.

“In Ireland alone our sea area is seven times our landmass,” explained Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, climate and communications.

“The North Atlantic and North Sea comprise some of the windiest locations on the globe. It is our greatest collective resource of continuous energy and it is momentous that we have agreed today to be ambitious in our targets, as a collective.

“Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the consequential energy price shock and security of supply crisis has shown us how crucial it is that we move away, as quickly as possible, from our reliance on expensive and ransomed fossil fuels. It has also shown us how important unity across the European Union has been in responding to this crisis.”

The NSEC will also act as the facilitating body for the development of trans-European energy grids to feed power across the EU generated by offshore wind farms in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Celtic Sea, and the English Channel and neighbouring waters.

This facility will become increasingly important as European countries bordering the North Sea and other bodies of water begin the development of large-scale offshore wind projects which are capable of generating power for use by multiple countries.

Already, countries such as Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom (though the UK is no longer a part of the NSEC after it pulled out of the European Union) have already proposed so-called “energy islands” which would see multi-gigawatt offshore wind farms built in the North and Baltic Seas and generate power to be transferred across multiple energy grids.

In late-2021, three European transmission system operators announced they had signed two key agreements in support of Denmark’s plan for two separate offshore wind-based energy islands.

Similarly, in March of this year, energy ministers from the UK and Belgium signed a Memorandum of Understanding which could see the two countries work together to build another renewable energy island in the North Sea.