On Wednesday 18 December, the European Commission announced that EU countries have agreed to update their targets for the deployment of offshore renewable energies until 2050 in each of the EU’s five sea basins.
At an online meeting on the same day, the directors-general of the countries’ energy ministries reached non-binding agreements on interim targets to be achieved by 2030 and 2040, based in particular on the integrated national energy and climate plan (NECP) and the offshore renewable energy potential of each basin.
By the end of the decade, the combined figures are expected to reach 88 GW of offshore renewable energy capacity, rising to around 360 GW by 2050. “This compares to a level of more than 20 GW installed in the EU today”, says the Commission in a press release.
The EU’s cumulative targets for offshore capacity thus fall within the following ranges: 86-89 GW by 2030, 259-261 GW by 2040 and 356-366 GW by 2050.
Based on the TEN-E Regulation, the non-binding agreements cover five areas: North 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).
Details of the respective agreements by basin will be published shortly.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) will also have to update the strategic integrated offshore network development plans (ONDPs) as part of the Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)