British and Dutch officials said Monday they had agreed to build a huge undersea cable to share the electricity generated from offshore wind farms.
The deal is interim and an early component of a plan that is slowly taking shape towards the conversion of the North Sea, which has been Europe’s main source of domestically produced oil and gas for decades. will be The new vision is to make the ocean a key place for renewable energy shared among neighboring countries.
“Close cooperation on offshore wind energy and interconnections between North Sea countries is essential.
The idea for the cable, called Lionlink, is to share surplus power with places that are temporarily short of it, Jetten said. Such connections promote a more resilient and efficient system, analysts say. The large number of markets for energy is also attractive to investors.
So-called interconnection networks already connect the UK with the rest of Europe. But this will take years to complete and appears to be the first to be built around the idea of connecting offshore wind farms (in this case Dutch waters) to consumers in other countries.
News of the deal comes as heads of nations around the North Sea meet in Belgium to pledge to step up their already ambitious offshore wind efforts. Importantly, the UK and Norway, which are not members of the European Union, joined along with her EU member states such as Germany and Belgium.
The sharp decline in Russian gas flows to Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year underscores the importance for Europe of developing energy sources independent of Russia. European countries were already embracing offshore wind power to combat climate change.
Denmark, Belgium, and other countries are planning large-scale energy installations that could include man-made islands that could handle power generated from multiple offshore wind farms. Surplus electricity will be used to make clean fuels like hydrogen for export to energy-hungry neighboring countries like Germany.
“The investment curve is only going in one direction, it’s going up,” said Lars Argaard, Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities, in a recent interview.
2022 was a disappointing year for offshore wind in terms of investment decisions, but the ambitious targets set are giving the industry a boost in 2023.
“There are already some good signs,” says Soren Lassen, head of offshore wind at consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. Approvals were almost three times higher than last year’s total.
Both the UK and the Netherlands have invested heavily in offshore wind farms and plan to significantly expand the power generated from coastal turbines in the next few years.
The planned cable will allow the UK to supply power from a large offshore wind farm in Dutch waters, as well as other shares of power. The developer of the cable is his two national power network operators, National Grid in the UK and TenneT in the Netherlands.
UK Energy and Security Minister Grant Shaps said the interconnection could light more homes than the country’s largest cities, Birmingham and Manchester combined.
