Offshore wind is 'the rising star' in the European energy mix

The European Commissioner for Energy believes offshore wind is the “rising star” in the European energy mix and that proposed projects are underpinning significant growth targets for power generation from renewables.

Commissioner Kadri Simson told delegates at the ONS event in Stavanger that offshore wind “is a rising star. Altogether, at the current moment, we have only 34 gigawatts of offshore wind installed. But European member states around the North Sea basin, together with Norway and the UK, have set a very ambitious target for 2030, 111 gigawatts. And that means that you really can see that developments and project promoters are acting.”

She said Europe has a global leadership position in the technology around offshore wind, which is one of the low-carbon solutions that can help Europe to replace fossil fuels.

Recently she had attended two high-level North Sea offshore summits “where all the presidents and prime ministers were present because they were so excited. Offshore wind is one of these (exciting areas for the North Sea)”.

She said that European electricity system operators had presented in January, for the first time ever, their 10-year network development plans, and that offshore supply is a part of that.

‘“Clearly, if you build an offshore wind farm, it requires also connections to the mainland grid. So this is a promising development. And on top of that, this is a (potential) scale-up of hydrogen.”