European countries pledge huge expansion of North Sea wind farms

Nine European countries have pledged to multiply the capacity of offshore wind farms in the North Sea by eight times current levels before 2050, turning it into what Belgium’s energy minister called “Europe’s biggest green power plant”.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, signed the declaration on Monday with the prime ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark and Luxembourg.

Norway’s prime minister and Britain’s energy minister also committed at a summit in Ostend, Belgium, to build more wind farms, develop “energy islands” – connected renewable generation sites at sea – and work on carbon capture projects.

“We are unlocking our offshore energy ambitions,” the Belgian energy minister, Tinne van der Straeten, said. “Coordination is absolutely essential. If each of the nine countries acts alone, we’ll collectively fail. Planning is at the core of everything.”

Aiming to curb reliance on Russian gas and radically reduce the use of CO₂-emitting fossil fuels, the nine countries were set to target a combined 120GW of North Sea offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 300GW by 2050.

The targets represent a further doubling of the capacity goals announced at a similar four-country summit in Esbjerg, Denmark, in May 2022, three months after European energy markets were plunged into turmoil by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander de Croo, said developments since then meant energy was “more than ever a geopolitical topic” and the summit would standardise infrastructure to ensure North Sea wind farms could be built faster and cheaper.

The Netherlands and Britain announced plans for Europe’s biggest cross-border electricity link connected to an offshore wind farm, while the EU and Norway pledged to develop infrastructure to capture and store CO₂ from depleted North Sea gas fields.

Britain has 45 offshore wind farms producing 14GW, with plans to expand capacity to 50GW by 2030. Germany has 30 producing 8GW, followed by the Netherlands with 2.8GW and Denmark and Belgium, both with 2.3GW.

France aims to expand massively to 40GW by 2050, an official said. They added: “Offshore wind energy will probably be the main source of renewable energy production between 2030 and 2050, far ahead of solar energy and land wind farms.”

The investment required to ensure the North Sea wind energy targets are met is huge – the EU recently calculated €800bn would be needed to reach 300GW by 2050 – and wind energy companies have said significant state funding will be essential.

Industry association WindEurope said Europe should be building the offshore infrastructure to add 20GW in output a year, but is creating capacity for only 7GW annually because of supply problems with key turbine parts.