Member nations of the North Sea Energy Cooperation group have set a 2050 offshore wind target of at least 260GW.
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway say the non-binding goal should see 76GW online by 2030 and 193GW by 2040.
As a signal of increased political ambition in the area of offshore renewables, the NSEC countries’ combined aggregate regional non-binding targets for the deployment of offshore renewables in the entire maritime area of the NSEC region constitutes more than 85% of EU’s goal of reaching a total offshore wind capacity of at least 300GW by 2050.
The new targets were published following a meeting of the group hosted by Irish Energy Minister Eamon Ryan (pictured) in Dublin today.
Members said they have an “historic opportunity” to accelerate deployment of offshore wind.
“The urgency of action has been reinforced by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the consequential energy prices and security of supply crises,” a joint statement added.
“Developing our common offshore renewable resources will reduce regional reliance on imported fossil fuels through strengthened energy regional self-sufficiency, as well as necessarily speeding up the transition towards a green and resilient energy system.”
In the framework of the revised TEN-E Regulation Ministers and the Commissioner agree that NSEC will act as facilitating body for the task of the North Seas Offshore Grids (NSOG) priority offshore corridor sea basin.
In this role, NSEC will support development of a non-binding NSOG agreement to cooperate on goals for offshore renewable energy to be deployed for the sea basin by 2050.
As the facilitating body for NSOG, NSEC will seek increased cooperation with the members of other priority offshore corridors established under the revised TEN-E, including in the development of hybrid projects.
Ministers and the Commissioner agree that meeting the offshore deployment targets necessary to deliver upon our common climate and energy objectives will require accelerated permitting for offshore renewable energy and infrastructure projects.
Ministers, therefore, support the intention of the permitting package within the RePowerEU Plan on streamlining and accelerating permit granting procedures, which will be given the fullest consideration by EU members in NSEC.
To support the realisation of projects, Ministers and the Commissioner further commit to take all relevant and appropriate steps, if not already in place, to speed up regulatory and permit granting procedures to as great an extent as possible, while ensuring a balanced co-existence of renewable energy and a healthy marine ecosystem, and promoting the sharing of best practices within NSEC.
Welcoming the new targets, the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson said: “It is impressive that the target agreed by nine NSEC countries constitutes more than 85% of the EU-wide ambition we outlined two years ago.”