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The North Seas countries on Monday adopted an action agenda on implementing their offshore wind ambitions.
Ministers of the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC), which groups nine countries – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden – and the European Commission, agreed the agenda at their meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.
The NSEC countries have committed to reaching at least 76 GW of offshore wind by 2030, 193 GW by 2040 and 260 GW by 2050.
“Close collaboration is the only way to successfully reach our energy ambitions. Today we start with the joint actions to take the sector to the next phase,” stated Netherlands’s Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten.
NSEC welcomed the European Commission’s recent Wind Power Package and vowed to actively engage in it. WindEurope commented that the action agenda commits the North Seas countries to take “just the sort of actions” that are outlined in the Wind Power Package, such as improving auction design and strengthening pre-qualification criteria.
NSEC also published a joint offshore wind tender planning to improve visibility on project demand and facilitate collaboration in the sector. The Dutch government estimates that around 15 GW will be auctioned a year, with almost 100 GW to be awarded between 2023 and 2030.
A key step towards an integrated energy system will be the publication in January 2024 of a shared plan for infrastructure in the North Sea by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
