Member States agree new ambition for expanding offshore renewable energy

EU countries have updated their goals for the deployment of offshore renewable energy up to 2050 in each of the EU's 5 sea basins, with intermediate objectives to be achieved by 2030 and 2040. At an online meeting of the Directors-General of the Ministries of Energy in the respective countries today, non-binding agreements were reached on the updated level of ambition. The combined figures result in an overall ambition of installing approximately 88 GW of offshore renewable generation capacity by the end of this decade, rising to around 360 GW by mid-century. This compares to a level of more than 20 GW installed in the EU today.

This confirms that Member States continue to attach high importance to offshore renewables for EU energy security and the clean energy transition, providing the stability the sector needs for its further development up to 2050.

Building on strong regional cooperation instruments and tools established by the revised Regulation on trans-European energy networks (TEN-E Regulation), today's agreements not only confirm the continued importance Member States attach to offshore renewables and send a strong signal to encourage the necessary investment, but, by going beyond national approaches, they are also taking a trans-European approach. This framework will allow for a cost-effective expansion of the grids needed to incorporate the expected offshore renewable generation, tackling internal bottlenecks where they occur and incurring the least environmental impact.

With these milestones agreed, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for electricity (ENTSO-E) will now update the strategic integrated offshore network development plans (ONDPs), giving visibility to grid promoters, investors and the supply chain on what offshore grids to expect for each sea basin by 2050.

Background

The revised TEN-E Regulation introduces key provisions to upscale offshore renewable energy in Europe by means of coordinated, long-term, integrated offshore and onshore grid planning. In this first key step, EU countries, with the support of the Commission, are jointly defining and agreeing on the amount of offshore renewable generation to be deployed within each sea basin by 2050, with intermediate steps in 2030 and 2040. These objectives are based on the national energy and climate plans, the offshore renewable potential of each sea basin, environmental protection, climate adaptation and other uses of the sea, as well as the EU's decarbonisation targets.

In administrative terms, today's agreements define the regions into the following 5 different sea basins

• Northern Seas offshore grids (NSOG)
• Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan offshore grids (BEMIP offshore)
• South and West offshore grids (SW offshore)
• Atlantic offshore grids
• South and East offshore grids (SE offshore)

Full details of the respective non-binding agreements per sea basin will be published shortly. In some cases, the national goals are expressed as ranges, partially reflecting on-going national discussions and/or a degree of uncertainty associated with the level of future development of offshore renewable energy, especially within the 2040/2050 timeframes. As a result, the cumulative EU offshore goals have the following ranges: 86-89 GW by 2030, 259-261 GW by 2040, and 356-366 GW by 2050.

Following input and consultations with relevant transmission system operators, national regulatory authorities, EU countries and the Commission in the coming year, ENTSO-E will update strategic integrated ONDPs, as part of the wider Ten Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP), starting from the updated non-binding agreements reached by EU countries.

The TEN-E rules also include non-binding cross-border cost-sharing assessments for the deployment of the sea-basin offshore network development plans to be presented by ENTSO-E, as well as support in the implementation of projects by the creation of unique points of contacts for offshore grid projects. The new provisions aim at facilitating hybrid offshore projects particularly, a new type of project combining offshore generation and transmission capacity of several EU countries.

The agreements are non-binding and subject to revision by EU countries in line with the provisions of the revised TEN-E Regulation, as well during national exercises such as the offshore maritime spatial planning. The TEN-E Regulation requires that these offshore goals are updated regularly.

Related links

• Trans-European Networks for Energy
• Offshore renewable energy