At the North Sea Summit held in the Belgian coastal city of Ostend on the 24th, nine European countries pledged to expand their total installed capacity in the North Sea eightfold to 300 GW by 2050. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan alongside the prime ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, and Luxembourg. The Belgian Energy Minister called it "Europe's largest green power plant."
North Sea wind turbine deployment targets 300GW by 2050
Following last year's sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the sighting of Russian spy ships in the North Sea, several leaders stressed the need to protect Europe's offshore wind farms and their interconnectors from sabotage and espionage. The capacity targets set at the summit doubled the targets announced by the four countries at their first summit in May 2022, when European energy markets were in turmoil following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
To reduce their dependence on Russian gas and their use of fossil fuels, the nine countries aim to increase their total installed capacity of North Sea offshore wind power to 120GW by 2030 and 300GW by 2050.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stated that energy has become the most sensitive geopolitical issue to date, and that countries will standardize infrastructure to ensure faster and more cost-effective construction of North Sea wind farms. Achieving North Sea wind power targets will require substantial funding. The European Union recently calculated that reaching 300 GW by 2050 would require €800 billion. Wind energy companies also stated that significant national funding is required.
WindEurope, the European Wind Energy Association, points out that Europe needs to build offshore wind turbines at a rate of 20GW per year, but due to supply problems with key wind turbine components, it can only increase production capacity by 7GW per year.
Transnational cable project to complete renewable energy network
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and British Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps also pledged at the summit to build more wind farms, work together to develop "energy islands" - electricity connected to offshore wind farms, and invest in carbon capture projects.
The Netherlands and the UK announced the LionLink project to build the world's largest multi-purpose cable under the North Sea, connecting offshore wind farms in the UK and the Netherlands; the EU and Norway pledged to build carbon capture and storage infrastructure to capture carbon dioxide released by North Sea natural gas fields.
French officials said the country aims to significantly expand to 40GW by 2050: "Offshore wind power could become the most important renewable energy source between 2030 and 2050, far surpassing solar and onshore wind power."
The UK has 45 offshore wind farms with an installed capacity of 14GW, and plans to expand this to 50GW by 2030. Germany has 30 with an installed capacity of 8GW, followed by the Netherlands with 2.8GW, and Denmark and Belgium with 2.3GW each.
Source: Environmental Information Center (https://e-info.org.tw/node/236608)
