WindEurope has called on the EU to remove policy barriers to hybrid cross-border offshore wind projects.
Chief executive Giles Dickson said the projects, which will connected into multiple countries, will be a big part of the sector’s future.
However, he said clear policy is needed to unleash the potential.
“They save money and space and improve energy flows across Europe,” he said.
“The EU needs to create a framework ASAP that will allow Europe to start developing these projects.”
Dickson made the comments after a discussion hosted by Dutch-German TSO TenneT, which focused on the topic.
The European wind industry believes hybrid projects should account for 100-150GW of the total 450GW of offshore wind by 2050.
TenneT are planning to develop a North Sea Power Hub as a cluster of hybrid projects. Denmark envisage hybrid projects around 2 islands, one in the North Sea and one in the Baltic, which they wish to develop by 2030.
“The EU should facilitate these projects. There needs to be an enabling framework which clarifies the market arrangements for hybrid projects and at the same time incentivises wind farm developers to invest in them,” added WindEurope.
“If the revenue perspective is unclear, the industry won’t want to build hybrid projects, and hybrids won’t happen.
“One option for hybrids may be for them to have their own stand-alone bidding zones. But this would require a fairer distribution of TSO congestion revenues to wind farm owners in order to give them the revenue perspective needed for investment.”