Governments around the North Sea, with the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands among them, are preparing to commit to 100GW of new offshore wind projects in North Sea waters and to tighten protection of offshore energy infrastructure, according to a draft declaration reported by Bloomberg.
The draft seen by the financial news service indicates that ministers responsible for energy from nine countries plan to endorse the declaration at a meeting in Hamburg next week, setting out joint projects running to 2050.
Amid rising security concerns, the text calls for greater sharing of security-relevant information and for coordinated steps to address attacks on offshore assets in both the physical and digital domains, Bloomberg reported.
Language in the draft underlines the need to shield offshore energy infrastructure from hostile actions inthe surrounding sea and airspace as well as from unsafe navigation, and stresses that a high level of physical and digital protection must be maintained.
According to Bloomberg, the summit will also involve Nato and representatives of the European Commission, while Iceland is expected to attend even though it is not a North Sea state.
The initiative comes in the same week that Donald Trump, president of the United States, criticised Europe’s offshore wind expansion.
For the European Union, the North Sea is treated as a key pillar of its plans to reach net-zero emissions, with offshore wind and hydropower expected to help lower energy bills, strengthen energy security, and support the production of green hydrogen.
Across the broader region, governments are targeting 300 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050. About one third of that volume is intended to come from jointly developed projects, and the draft cited by Bloomberg states that power grid operators (transmission system operators) will advance 20GW of these collaborative schemes during the 2030s.
Source: Bloomberg
