The North Seas have all what is needed to be Europe’s green energy hub and be the sea basin in Europe, which can contribute the most to create a stronger Europe, an interdependent Europe, a competitive Europe and many new green jobs.
Europe’s competitiveness is challenged. The supply chains are under pressure, costs have gone up, and the global competition has increased.
Offshore wind faces significant challenges, yet also represents a key part of the solution. To address this issue, Lars Aagaard, the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities and co-President of the North Seas Energy Cooperation, has gathered the North Seas’ ministers as well as industry representatives and organizations from all over Europe in Odense. The result is an agreement on a list of concrete and central recommendations from the ministers of the North Seas outlining how Europe can fully realize the potential of offshore wind in the North Seas and at the same time lay an important part of the foundation to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness.
”We need a strong, green Europe to compete in the global race. The future green jobs and industry in Europe depends on it. One of the key solutions is offshore wind – and luckily, we are living right next to the North Seas with optimal conditions for producing offshore wind energy. To fulfill the potential, the North Seas Energy Cooperation have comprised a list of concrete recommendations to the new European Commission and the rest of Europe. We cannot solve this alone,” says Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard.
The “Odense recommendations” represent the North Seas’ countries’ input to a new European Commission, as the challenges we face cannot be solved nationally. The name of the recommendations is a reference to Odense Port, in which the meeting has taken place and which is a good example on a successful work place that has transformed itself from a former shipyard to a production site for large wind turbines.
Read more about the recommendations here
Cross-border projects and European supply chains
One of the central focus areas for the North Seas Energy Cooperation is cross-border offshore energy projects. These projects are essential for connecting the North Seas’ green energy potential with the rest of Europe – however, they currently face numerous barriers.
“We recommend some very concrete measures that we know the industry currently lacks. It is absolutely crucial for the future of cross-border offshore energy projects that we can split the meal and the bill more fairly. We must be able to see where the demand for green energy will be many years ahead so that we can plan our infrastructure accordingly and align it with production and demand. We need decisive green action to secure the future of Europe’s competitiveness,” says Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard.
Firstly, the framework for the cost-benefit-sharing of cross-border projects is missing. Today, the burden of cost is carried by the countries that build – and not necessarily the countries that need and consume the green energy. The North Seas countries encourages to a new approach to more fairly distribute the burden of costs and benefits, just as it is recommended that the European Commission examine the potential of a regional offshore wind facility to strengthen financing of cross-border offshore wind projects.
Amongst other things, the North Seas Energy Cooperation aims to increase the transparency and predictability across the entire supply chain for offshore renewable energy in Europe. The European wind industry has also called for this. The establishment of a digital tool, containing a pipeline of tenders and auctions, manufacturing capacity of key components, production facilities in Europe and capacity in the ports, would be an important way forward. It will give the investors a better overview of all relevant parts of the supply chains, just as it will make it possible to see incoming vulnerabilities and interdependencies in the value chains well ahead of time.
To strengthen the connection between production and demand of green energy in Europe, the North Seas Energy Cooperation also emphasize the need to analyse the energy situation in Europe in 20 to 30 years and establish a pipeline of what is needed in the future. It is necessary to ensure the deployment of energy infrastructure, that Europe needs on a regional and European level to match demand with production.
Read the Odense-recommendations here
Facts
- Denmark is co-president of the North Seas Energy Cooperation in 2024. In 2025, Belgium will take over.
- The members of the cooperation are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the European-Commission. United Kingdom is an observer in the cooperation.
- This year, the North Seas Energy Cooperation has adopted a work programme for the next five years. Among other things, this includes the establishment of a new support group dedicated to renewable hydrogen. The group will focus on how to support market ramp-up to effectively be able to exploit the synergies between offshore wind and renewable hydrogen production.
Contact the press offices of the Ministry for Climate, Energy and Utilities on +45 41 72 38 05.