On Thursday 19 November, the European Commission presented its strategy on offshore renewable energy, with the ambition to considerably strengthen the European Union’s ”technological and industrial leadership” in this area.
“This Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy will support the further growth of this industry, and will spur further progress towards meeting our ambitious climate targets for 2030 and beyond”, said Frans Timmermans, Commission Vice-President in charge of the European Green Deal.
“Offshore energy is a true European success story. With this strategy, we intend to add a new chapter to this tale and make the EU the global powerhouse of offshore renewable energy”, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson went on to say.
In their view, this strategy represents a “win-win” for the environment and the economy.
Changes from the preliminary draft
The strategy presents some modifications compared to the preliminary draft detailed in our articles (see EUROPE 12596/7).
In particular, the stated targets for ocean energy (wave or tidal energy) have been revised downwards. Thus, the Commission is now targeting a capacity of 40 GW by 2050, compared to 60 GW in the provisional version.
Asked about this change, an EU official explained that this was due to a review of the modelling process and the fact that the target included in the draft was based on data for the EU28 (including the UK) provided by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
In addition, while the preliminary draft set a target of 1-3 GW by 2030, the final strategy now mentions a target of “at least 1 GW”, as well as a target of 100 MW by 2025.
The targets for offshore wind capacity, on the other hand, have remained the same: 300 GW on the horizon for 2050 and 60 GW by 2030.
While these are ambitious targets given the EU’s current capacities (12 GW for offshore wind and 13.5 MW for ocean energy), Mr Timmermans said he felt that they were achievable, provided there is “careful planning, good cooperation and ample funding”.
Another change: in 2021, the Commission will propose a guide on cost-benefit sharing for cross-border projects.
In addition, the strategy now stresses the importance of systematically integrating the principle of “circularity by design” into renewable energy research and innovation. According to an EU official, the aim is to solve the problem of recycling the blades of wind turbines, which are mostly made of composite materials.
The reference to the development of an investment programme for 10 large-scale marine energy technology projects, combining Horizon Europe, InvestEU, national public funding and private funding, disappeared from the final strategy.
Finally, it should be noted that the Commission has also published a document accompanying the strategy with the aim of clarifying the rules on the electricity market.
Reactions
Stakeholders generally welcomed the Commission’s strategy.
“It is a very good strategy”, said Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope. In particular, he welcomed the emphasis placed on the importance of ensuring predictable revenues for offshore wind farm developers, given the high initial investments required in this sector.
WindEurope also welcomed the fact that the strategy covers all EU sea basins (North Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic) as well as some coastal and island communities.
“Renewable energy and hydrogen are the fundamental and interdependent building blocks to make the European energy system climate neutral”, reacted Hydrogen Europe, while calling for ensuring that the appropriate transmission and distribution infrastructure is present in the forthcoming revisions of the TEN-E Regulation of the Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP).
Welcoming the Commission's desire of “significantly increasing the offshore renewable energy share”, the NGO CAN Europe urged Member States “to speed up the planning and work across borders (...) while reducing to the minimum the impacts on the marine ecosystem”.
See the strategy: https://bit.ly/3fd7L1M and the document clarifying the electricity market rules: https://bit.ly/2KkpnNP (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)