North Sea energy island delayed by at least three (more) years
A large-scale Danish prestige project in the form of an energy island in the North Sea has been delayed again. [to 2036]
Conceived in 2020…
In its 2020 Offshore Renewable Energy strategy, the EU committed itself to installing at least 60 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and 300 GW by 2050. Furthermore, Denmark, which has been a pioneer in the use of offshore wind energy, having constructed the world’s first offshore wind energy farm in 1991, is in the process of constructing three new offshore wind farms that will be in operation by 2030 at the latest.
Things got too expensive for Belgium. Maybe Germany?
Initially, it was planned as a Danish-Belgian project. Aagaard said that was no longer viable following increases in raw materials prices and in interest rates, but it could be redesigned to include power cables linked to Germany, adding the earliest completion date was 2036 from a previous estimate of 2033…
Efforts to get Belgium to pay a bigger share were unsuccessful, Aaagaard said adding he hoped Germany would participate in the financing. Germany’s economy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DB2
I wonder if they’ll consider a small modular nuclear reactor or two.
From the original post: In its 2020 Offshore Renewable Energy strategy, the EU committed itself to installing at least 60 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and 300 GW by 2050.
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The above is old news. In 2023, the EU revised its offshore wind targets. Surprisingly, they almost doubled the target capacity for 2030.
The combined figures give an overall ambition of installing approximately 111 GW of offshore renewable generation capacity by the end of this decade - nearly twice as much as the objective of at least 60 GW set out in the EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy in November 2020. This then rises to around 317 GW by mid-century, reaching the very goal of the Strategy.
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The EU currently has 18 GW of installed offshore wind capacity. Getting to 111 GW by 2030 means building 93 GW of new capacity. It has taken the EU over 20 years to get to 18 GW, and now they plan on adding 93 GW more in 7 years? That seems unlikely, unless there is a very strong effort, and I don’t see that happening.
If we parse the exact wording, it does say “offshore renewable generation”, not specifically wind power. I suppose that opens the door to wave power generation? How about offshore nuclear power plants? They might need to change the wording to “offshore zero-CO2 power capacity”, or something similar.