Four EU countries – Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – jointly announced yesterday that they have set a target price for offshore wind power of at least 65 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and then intend to more than double the total capacity to 150 GW by 2050. .
For the future, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, as of September 2021 they were 35.3 GW world power of sea winds.
A huge push of sea winds in Europe
This giant offshore wind movement of Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands will provide at least half the power needed by the EU to reach net zero by 2050.
The EU has set a common goal of generating 300 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050, which is more than the currently set 16 GW.
Danish Prime Minister Matte Frederiksen has said that four EU countries that will build offshore wind farms off the North Sea “want to quadruple our total wind capacity by 2030 and tenfold by 2050.”
The aim is to provide clean energy from the sea wind for 230 million homes in the EU, and to provide clean energy for the production of green hydrogen and green fuel for heavy industry and transport.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said:
The North Sea is a place where, with the help of offshore wind farms, we can produce electricity on a large scale, in large quantities, which we need – and we can already [that] today in a way that is economical.
Abandonment of Russian fossil fuels, transition to clean energy
The announcement from Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands came after the RePowerEU plan was unveiled yesterday. European Commission“Response to the difficulties and disruption of the global energy market caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
The EU imported about 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia last year, and it is working to end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels “long before 2030” and fight climate change. The EU’s ban on Russian coal is expected to begin in August.
The RePowerEU plan is a tripartite plan: faster introduction of clean energy, intensification of energy saving efforts and more imports of natural gas outside Russia.
Reuters notes natural gas imports:
The commission said it would need some investment in fossil fuel infrastructure – 10 billion euros for a dozen gas and liquefied natural gas projects and up to 2 billion euros for oil destined for landlocked Central and Eastern European countries.
The European Commission has said that the new gas infrastructure will be able to transport green hydrogen in the future.
The plan will cost up to € 300 billion ($ 316 billion) and will require additional investment of € 210 billion by 2027 from the public and private sectors at national, cross-border and EU levels. It states that “reducing imports of Russian fossil fuels could also save almost 100 billion euros a year.”
The European Commission has also proposed a higher legally binding target for obtaining 45% of the EU’s energy by 2030 from clean energy sources – more than its current proposal of 40%.
RePowerEU’s clean energy initiatives include:
- Doubling solar capacity by 2025 and installing 600 GW of solar energy by 2030
- Solar Roof Initiative with a Gradual Legal Commitment to Install Solar Panels on New Public and Commercial Buildings and New Residential Buildings
- Doubling the deployment of heat pumps and measures to integrate geothermal and solar thermal energy into modernized district and municipal heating systems
- Reduce and simplify permitting for clean energy projects such as wind and solar
- Set a target of 10 million metric tons of domestic production of renewable hydrogen and 10 million tons of imports by 2030 to replace natural gas, coal and oil in industries and transport sectors that are difficult to decarbonise.
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https://electrek.co/2022/05/19/four-eu-countries-offshore-wind-target-65-gw-2030/
