Energy and environment: nine countries want to accelerate wind power in the North Sea

Leaders from nine European countries gathered for a summit in Ostend, Belgium, on April 24, 2023. They discussed the future of wind energy in the North Sea. REUTERS - YVES HERMAN

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Increasing wind power generation in the North Sea tenfold by 2050 to 300 gigawatts connected is the very ambitious goal set on Monday 24 April in Ostend, Belgium, by the leaders of nine European countries. The industrial challenge is enormous.

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With our special envoy in Ostend, Lucile Gimberg

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Vladimir Putin must no longer be able to turn off the energy tap Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said very directly on Monday 24 April on the quays of the port of Ostend.

European energy sovereignty, but also the decarbonisation of the economy in an attempt to curb global warming: these are the two reasons why these nine European countries – Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – are stepping on the accelerator to increase wind power production in the North Sea tenfold by 2050.

To achieve this, "we will have to standardise processes and synchronise our calendars," insisted the head of the Belgian government, Alexander De Croo. The aim is to smooth industrial order books and promote interconnections and the creation of an electricity grid in the North Sea. Denmark, for its part, invited its partners to reduce bureaucracy in order to move faster.

At the table, France and Norway are the least developed countries in offshore wind energy: just 0.5 gigawatts connected for the France, compared to 14 gigawatts for the United Kingdom, the world leader after China. Emmanuel Macron, who inaugurated the first wind farm in France just a few months ago, promised Ostend that Paris would do its part and called on his peers to build a European sector. "We need to gain autonomy over critical materials and assembly," he said.

The objective of the North Sea Summit in Ostend is to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind. pic.twitter.com/iZXZLnCcqG

— Elysée (@Elysee) April 24, 2023

As for Luxembourg, which has no maritime space and was there in Ostend, it said it was ready to finance projects.

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Energies
  • Environment
  • France
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium
  • Climate change