Denmark and Germany pledged yesterday to cooperate more closely on offshore wind energy projects via clusters in the Baltic and North Seas, aiming to offer a boost to renewable power.
Arkona offshore wind farm. Credit: Ein Dahmer / Wikimedia
Arkona offshore wind farm. Credit: Ein Dahmer / Wikimedia
The cooperation is an important part towards reaching the goals of the EU's offshore wind strategy, which is aiming for a Europe-wide 60 GW capacity by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050 - up from 12 GW today.
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“What matters now is to identify concrete projects together with our neighbours and drive them forward,” said Germany’s energy minister Peter Altmaier.
He also stressed the importance of finding framework conditions that were of benefit to both Germany and Denmark, and to find synergies with green hydrogen development.
Earlier this month, Copenhagen announced plans for two clusters, adding 5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 - three times the size of Denmark’s current offshore wind fleet - and marking the largest construction project in the country's history.
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The North Sea energy island would connect offshore wind farms with 3 gigawatt (GW) of capacity by 2030, potentially rising to 10 GW later, while a second island off the coast of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea would have a capacity of 2 GW.
These could be connected to countries other than Denmark via offshore grid connections.
As part of its offshore strategy, the European Commission proposed that power generation assets at sea should form their own electricity market bidding zones, which set the price of the production there.
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