*** modified on Wednesday 31 August 11:30 am ***
The heads of state or government of eight EU Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Germany) set themselves the joint goal of increasing the current offshore wind power generation capacity in the Baltic Sea sevenfold by 2030 at the Baltic Sea Energy Security Summit in Copenhagen on Tuesday 30 August.
These countries intend to increase wind energy in the Baltic Sea to 20 GW, which represents one third of the EU’s ambition for 2030, stressed the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who also attended the event.
According to her, Baltic wind power could cover the energy consumption of about six million households by 2030.
In its offshore wind and ocean energy strategy adopted in November 2020, the EU has set a target of at least 60 GW of installed capacity in offshore wind and 1 GW in ocean energy by 2030 and 300 GW and 40 GW, respectively, by 2050.
The meeting in Copenhagen was also an opportunity for Mrs von der Leyen and the various heads of state or government to insist on the need to move the EU away from its energy dependence on Russia.
“We are harnessing the power of wind to free ourselves from Russian fossil fuels and to become climate neutral”, said the Commission President.
In order to accelerate investment in offshore wind, she said that the Commission will prepare technical guidance with ENTSO-E (the European Network of Transmission System Operators) on the development of grid development plans based on common offshore commitments by September.
The President also stressed the importance of prioritising hybrid projects (allowing wind farms to be connected to more than one Member State) as well as providing the necessary political support to speed up the licensing of offshore wind energy projects. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)