Wind power summit in Belgium: The “greenest power plant in Europe”

So far, the offshore potential of the North Sea has been largely untapped. Now the neighboring countries want to pick up the pace – and double the wind energy output. According to Chancellor Scholz, the North Sea is becoming an important place for energy production.

Wind energy from the North Sea should make a significant contribution to Europe’s power supply in the future. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the representatives of eight other countries came together at the offshore summit in Ostend, Belgium, to promote the expansion of offshore wind farms. “In a very short time, the North Sea will be the most important place for energy production, even more so than we already know,” said the SPD politician.

Specifically, the nine countries – in addition to Germany and Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Great Britain – want to build offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 120 gigawatts by 2030. By 2050, at least 300 gigawatts should be generated from offshore wind energy. At the same time, the production of green hydrogen in the North Sea is to be expanded. This aims to help make Europe carbon neutral by 2050.

“The greenest power plant in the world” is to be built

“The greenest power plant in the world is being built in the North Sea,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. He spoke of ambitious goals. The task now is to implement these goals. “This means we have to standardize, we have to work better together, we have to synchronize supply chains.”

The security of the infrastructure in the North Sea is just as important, stressed De Croo. Wind farms, seabed cables and pipelines are vulnerable to sabotage and espionage.

Germany: Eight gigawatts of offshore capacity

According to the Belgian government, the value of offshore wind energy in the nine countries was around 30 gigawatts last year. So far, Germany has around eight gigawatts of offshore capacity. The Federal Republic is thus in second place in Europe behind Great Britain with 14 gigawatts. France, Norway and Ireland, on the other hand, each produced significantly less than one gigawatt.

“It is a colossal undertaking and a real example of the energy transition in action,” said the heads of state and government in a joint contribution to the magazine “Politico” before the summit. This requires massive investments both on land and at sea. At the same time, bureaucratic obstacles would have to be removed.

“We cannot wait years for approval processes while global temperatures rise and autocratic governments have the opportunity to turn off the lights in our living rooms and shut down our industrial production,” it said. At the same time, the healthy and robust marine ecosystems must be preserved.

Wind energy industry is pushing for financial aid

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was also expected in Ostend. Your authority had recently estimated the necessary funds for the ambitious plans at 800 billion euros. The wind energy industry is therefore pushing for billions in financial aid from the public sector.

The industry association WindEurope hopes the summit will promise billions in financial injections. “So far, insufficient funds have been mobilized for offshore plants,” said policy officer Pierre Tardieu. “Quite a few funds flow into innovation, but investments must also be made in existing production structures in order to double or triple capacity,” emphasized the industry representative.

“Electricity highway” is intended to connect wind farms

Further declarations were also passed and projects initiated at the summit. The EU and Norway formally concluded an agreement that is intended to strengthen cooperation, for example in the area of ​​renewable energy and environmental protection.

Great Britain and the Netherlands, in turn, announced the construction of an “electricity highway” in the North Sea, which should go into operation in the early 2030s. The “LionLink” line will then connect both countries with wind farms in the North Sea.