In the presence of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands the 10 Energy Ministers of the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) agreed a new NSEC Action Agenda for offshore wind.
This agenda aims among other things to help strengthen Europe’s wind energy supply chain.
In the same vein NSEC also welcomed the EU Commission’s Wind Power Package and pledged to actively engage in its implementation.
The NSEC countries want to build 76GW offshore wind by 2030, 193GW by 2040 and 260GW by 2050.
That will make the North Seas the power plant of Europe, but it needs close cross-border collaboration.
The NSEC Action Agenda agreed today sets out the necessary actions: in grid development, market design, financing, auction design, nature protection and offshore energy security.
The meeting, held in the Hague this morning, comes less than a month after the EU Commission presented its Wind Power Package to strengthen Europe’s struggling wind energy industry.
The commission has proposed enshrining support for the Wind Power Package in a Wind Energy Charter to be signed by governments and industry by the end of the year.
The NSEC governments today welcomed the package and pledged to actively engage in its implementation.
NSEC countries also welcomed the first Offshore Network Development Plan (ONDP) to be published in January 2024.
It will serve as guidance for future network investments.
They pledged to share data on future offshore and onshore grid planning as well as the locations renewable hydrogen electrolysis.
NSEC also committed to the accelerated development of key cross-border infrastructure projects.
The countries stressed the need for the EU electricity market design to set up a regulatory framework for offshore wind hybrids, consisting of offshore wind farms which are connected to more than one country and therefore serve as an interconnector.